| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Essays of Travel by Robert Louis Stevenson: wind under a cloudless sky; it seems to have no root in the
constitution of things; it must speedily begin to faint and wither
away like a cut flower. And on those days the thought of the wind
and the thought of human life came very near together in my mind.
Our noisy years did indeed seem moments in the being of the eternal
silence; and the wind, in the face of that great field of stationary
blue, was as the wind of a butterfly's wing. The placidity of the
sea was a thing likewise to be remembered. Shelley speaks of the sea
as 'hungering for calm,' and in this place one learned to understand
the phrase. Looking down into these green waters from the broken
edge of the rock, or swimming leisurely in the sunshine, it seemed to
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from When the World Shook by H. Rider Haggard: fail, while I, who too have knowledge, shall find strength to
save the world."
Then of a sudden, once again she grew splendid, almost divine;
no more a woman but as it were an angel. Some fire of pure
purpose seemed to burn up in her and to shine out of her eyes.
Yet she said little. Only this indeed:
"To everyone, I think, there comes the moment of opportunity
when choice must be made between what is great and what is small,
between self and its desires and the good of other wanderers in
the way. This day that moment may draw near to you or me, and if
so, surely we shall greet it well. Such is Bastin's lesson, which
When the World Shook |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from King Lear by William Shakespeare: hawthorn
blows the cold wind. Humh! go to thy cold bed, and warm
thee.
Lear. Hast thou given all to thy two daughters, and art thou
come
to this?
Edg. Who gives anything to poor Tom? whom the foul fiend hath
led
through fire and through flame, through ford and whirlpool,
o'er
bog and quagmire; that hath laid knives under his pillow and
King Lear |
