| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Secret Sharer by Joseph Conrad: of my two officers, the second mate barefooted, the chief
mate in long India-rubber boots, near the break of the poop,
and the steward halfway down the poop ladder talking to them eagerly.
He happened to catch sight of me and dived, the second
ran down on the main-deck shouting some order or other,
and the chief mate came to meet me, touching his cap.
There was a sort of curiosity in his eye that I did not like.
I don't know whether the steward had told them that I was "queer" only,
or downright drunk, but I know the man meant to have a good look at me.
I watched him coming with a smile which, as he got into point-blank range,
took effect and froze his very whiskers. I did not give him time
The Secret Sharer |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from New Poems by Robert Louis Stevenson: Whose daylong fortresses they were,
By fading warmth, by lingering print,
These now discarded scabbards hint.
A twofold change the ladies know:
First, in the morn the bugles blow,
And they, with floral hues and scents,
Man their beribboned battlements.
But let the stars appear, and they
Shed inhumanities away;
And from the changeling fashion see,
Through comic and through sweet degree,
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Fisherman's Luck by Henry van Dyke: polyglot guests, and serving-maids in stagey Norse costumes,--like
the famous inn at Stalheim, which commands the amazing panorama of
the Naerodal. Another day we would lodge in a plain farmhouse like
the station at Nedre Vasenden, where eggs and fish were the staples
of diet, and the farmer's daughter wore the picturesque peasants'
dress, with its tall cap, without any dramatic airs. Lakes and
rivers, precipices and gorges, waterfalls and glaciers and snowy
mountains were our daily repast. We drove over five hundred miles
in various kinds of open wagons, KARIOLS for one, and STOLKJAERRES
for two, after we had left our comfortable gig behind us. We saw
the ancient dragon-gabled church of Burgund; and the delightful,
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