| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Taras Bulba and Other Tales by Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol: their matchlocks without a moment's intermission. Even the foreign
engineers were amazed at tactics heretofore unknown to them, and said
then and there, in the presence of all, "These Zaporozhtzi are brave
fellows. That is the way men in other lands ought to fight." And they
advised that the cannons should at once be turned on the camps.
Heavily roared the iron cannons with their wide throats; the earth
hummed and trembled far and wide, and the smoke lay twice as heavy
over the plain. They smelt the reek of the powder among the squares
and streets in the most distant as well as the nearest quarters of the
city. But those who laid the cannons pointed them too high, and the
shot describing too wide a curve flew over the heads of the camps, and
Taras Bulba and Other Tales |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Sons of the Soil by Honore de Balzac: he flies behind the tree to see if he is yet through it; and he does
this every instant."
"The noise I heard, dear instructress of natural history, was not a
noise made by an animal; there was evidence of mind in it, and that
proclaims a man."
The countess was seized with panic, and she darted back through the
wild flower-garden, seeking the path by which to leave the forest.
"What is the matter?" cried Blondet, rushing after her.
"I thought I saw eyes," she said, when they regained the path through
which they had reached the charcoal-burner's open.
Just then they heard the low death-rattle of a creature whose throat
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Enemies of Books by William Blades: from week's end to week's end; where you inhaled the dust of paper-decay
with every breath, and could not take up a book without sneezing;
where old boxes, full of older literature, served as preserves
for the bookworm, without even an autumn "battue" to thin the breed.
Occasionally these libraries were (I speak of thirty years ago)
put even to vile uses, such as would have shocked all ideas
of propriety could our ancestors have foreseen their fate.
I recall vividly a bright summer morning many years ago, when,
in search of Caxtons, I entered the inner quadrangle of a certain
wealthy College in one of our learned Universities. The buildings
around were charming in their grey tones and shady nooks.
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