| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Rescue by Joseph Conrad: a pace. "Risk it! Certainly! Where's that mysterious ring?"
"I have got it in my pocket," said Jorgenson, readily; yet nearly
half a minute elapsed before Mrs. Travers felt the characteristic
shape being pressed into her half-open palm. "Don't let anybody
see it," Jorgenson admonished her in a murmur. "Hide it somewhere
about you. Why not hang it round your neck?"
Mrs. Travers' hand remained firmly closed on the ring. "Yes, that
will do," she murmured, hastily. "I'll be back in a moment. Get
everything ready." With those words she disappeared inside the
deckhouse and presently threads of light appeared in the
interstices of the boards. Mrs. Travers had lighted a candle in
The Rescue |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson by Robert Louis Stevenson: of all my old active and pleasant habits, there grows more and more
upon me that belief in the kindness of this scheme of things, and
the goodness of our veiled God, which is an excellent and pacifying
compensation. I trust, if your health continues to trouble you,
you may find some of the same belief. But perhaps my fine
discovery is a piece of art, and belongs to a character cowardly,
intolerant of certain feelings, and apt to self-deception. I don't
think so, however; and when I feel what a weak and fallible vessel
I was thrust into this hurly-burly, and with what marvellous
kindness the wind has been tempered to my frailties, I think I
should be a strange kind of ass to feel anything but gratitude.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Hunting of the Snark by Lewis Carroll: The helmsman used to stand by with tears in his eyes; he knew it was all wrong,
but alas! Rule 42 of the Code, "No one shall speak to the Man at the Helm,"
had been completed by the Bellman himself with the words "and the Man at the
Helm shall speak to no one." So remonstrance was impossible, and no steering
could be done till the next varnishing day. During these bewildering intervals
the ship usually sailed backwards.
As this poem is to some extent connected with the lay of the Jabberwock,
let me take this opportunity of answering a question that has often been asked
me, how to pronounce "slithy toves." The "i" in "slithy" is long, as in
"writhe"; and "toves" is pronounced so as to rhyme with "groves." Again, the
first "o" in "borogoves" is pronounced like the "o" in "borrow." I have heard
The Hunting of the Snark |
