| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Silverado Squatters by Robert Louis Stevenson: valley go sauntering about their business as in the days
before the flood.
To reach Mount Saint Helena from San Francisco, the traveller
has twice to cross the bay: once by the busy Oakland Ferry,
and again, after an hour or so of the railway, from Vallejo
junction to Vallejo. Thence he takes rail once more to mount
the long green strath of Napa Valley.
In all the contractions and expansions of that inland sea,
the Bay of San Francisco, there can be few drearier scenes
than the Vallejo Ferry. Bald shores and a low, bald islet
inclose the sea; through the narrows the tide bubbles, muddy
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Sesame and Lilies by John Ruskin: The seaman does not commonly desire to be made captain only because
he knows he can manage the ship better than any other sailor on
board. He wants to be made captain that he may be CALLED captain.
The clergyman does not usually want to be made a bishop only because
he believes that no other hand can, as firmly as his, direct the
diocese through its difficulties. He wants to be made bishop
primarily that he may be called "My Lord." And a prince does not
usually desire to enlarge, or a subject to gain, a kingdom, because
he believes no one else can as well serve the State, upon its
throne; but, briefly, because he wishes to be addressed as "Your
Majesty," by as many lips as may be brought to such utterance.
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Massimilla Doni by Honore de Balzac: revolutions come and vanish in the course of a few hours, while Venice
alone expands and lives; for the Venice of his dreams is the empress
of the seas. She has two millions of inhabitants, the sceptre of
Italy, the mastery of the Mediterranean and the Indies!"
"What an opera is the brain of man! What an unfathomed abyss!--even to
those who, like Gall, have mapped it out," cried the physician.
"Dear Duchess," said Vendramin, "do not omit the last service that my
elixir will do me. After hearing ravishing voices and imbibing music
through every pore, after experiencing the keenest pleasures and the
fiercest delights of Mahomet's paradise, I see none but the most
terrible images. I have visions of my beloved Venice full of
|
