| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Enemies of Books by William Blades: His post, it seemed, was honorary and a sinecure, being imposed,
as a rule, upon the youngest "Fellow." No one cared
for the appointment, and as a matter of course the keys
of office had but distant acquaintance with the lock.
At last I was rewarded with success, and politely, but mutely,
conducted by the librarian into his kingdom of dust and silence.
The dark portraits of past benefactors looked after us from
their dusty old frames in dim astonishment as we passed,
evidently wondering whether we meant "work"; book-decay--
that peculiar flavour which haunts certain libraries--
was heavy in the air, the floor was dusty, making the sunbeams
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Prufrock/Other Observations by T. S. Eliot: In a life composed so much, so much of odds and ends,
(For indeed I do not love it ... you knew? you are not blind!
How keen you are!)
To find a friend who has these qualities,
Who has, and gives
Those qualities upon which friendship lives.
How much it means that I say this to you--
Without these friendships--life, what cauchemar!"
Among the windings of the violins
And the ariettes
Of cracked cornets
Prufrock/Other Observations |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Malbone: An Oldport Romance by Thomas Wentworth Higginson: round a great fire of driftwood; some of these were fishermen
who had with difficulty made a landing on the beach, and who
confirmed the accounts already given. The boat had been seen
sailing for the Narragansett shore, and when the squall came,
the boatman had lowered and reefed the sail, and stood for the
light-ship. They must be on board of her, if anywhere.
"There are safe there?" asked Philip, eagerly.
"Only place where they would be safe, then," said the
spokesman.
"Unless the light-ship parts," said an old fellow.
"Parts!" said the other. "Sixty fathom of two-inch chain, and
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