| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Master of Ballantrae by Robert Louis Stevenson: without a word to our former friend, and embarked, a little above,
in a canoe.
To the toils and perils of this journey, it would require a pen
more elegant than mine to do full justice. The reader must
conceive for himself the dreadful wilderness which we had now to
thread; its thickets, swamps, precipitous rocks, impetuous rivers,
and amazing waterfalls. Among these barbarous scenes we must toil
all day, now paddling, now carrying our canoe upon our shoulders;
and at night we slept about a fire, surrounded by the howling of
wolves and other savage animals. It was our design to mount the
headwaters of the Hudson, to the neighbourhood of Crown Point,
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne: traversed Prospect Heights, and alter a walk of five miles or more they
reached a glade, situated two hundred feet from Lake Grant.
On the way Herbert had discovered a tree, the branches of which the
Indians of South America employ for making their bows. It was the crejimba,
of the palm family, which does not bear edible fruit. Long straight
branches were cut, the leaves stripped off; it was shaped, stronger in the
middle, more slender at the extremities, and nothing remained to be done
but to find a plant fit to make the bow-string. This was the "hibiscus
heterophyllus," which furnishes fibers of such remarkable tenacity that
they have been compared to the tendons of animals. Pencroft thus obtained
bows of tolerable strength, for which he only wanted arrows. These were
The Mysterious Island |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Lady Susan by Jane Austen: delightful retirement.
I long to be made known to your dear little children, in whose hearts I
shall be very eager to secure an interest I shall soon have need for all my
fortitude, as I am on the point of separation from my own daughter. The
long illness of her dear father prevented my paying her that attention
which duty and affection equally dictated, and I have too much reason to
fear that the governess to whose care I consigned her was unequal to the
charge. I have therefore resolved on placing her at one of the best
private schools in town, where I shall have an opportunity of leaving her
myself in my way to you. I am determined, you see, not to be denied
admittance at Churchhill. It would indeed give me most painful sensations
Lady Susan |
