| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Mirror of the Sea by Joseph Conrad: "Can you?" I murmured, fascinated by the black hood turned
immovably over the stern, as if in unlawful communion with that old
sea of magicians, slave-dealers, exiles and warriors, the sea of
legends and terrors, where the mariners of remote antiquity used to
hear the restless shade of an old wanderer weep aloud in the dark.
"I know a rock," whispered the initiated voice within the hood
secretly. "But - caution! It must be done before our men perceive
what we are about. Whom can we trust now? A knife drawn across
the fore halyards would bring the foresail down, and put an end to
our liberty in twenty minutes. And the best of our men may be
afraid of drowning. There is our little boat, but in an affair
The Mirror of the Sea |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Gettysburg Address by Abraham Lincoln: Now we are engaged in a great civil war. . .testing whether
that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated. . .
can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war.
We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting place
for those who here gave their lives that this nation might live.
It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate. . .we cannot consecrate. . .
we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead,
who struggled here have consecrated it, far above our poor power
to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember,
what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Pupil by Henry James: they want to pass for? What DO they, Mr. Pemberton?"
"You pause for a reply," said Pemberton, treating the question as a
joke, yet wondering too and greatly struck with his mate's intense
if imperfect vision. "I haven't the least idea."
"And what good does it do? Haven't I seen the way people treat
them - the 'nice' people, the ones they want to know? They'll take
anything from them - they'll lie down and be trampled on. The nice
ones hate that - they just sicken them. You're the only really
nice person we know."
"Are you sure? They don't lie down for me!"
"Well, you shan't lie down for them. You've got to go - that's
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