| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Tapestried Chamber by Walter Scott: studiously avoided any attempt at ornament which might interfere
with the simplicity of the tale.
At the same time, it must be admitted that the particular class
of stories which turns on the marvellous possesses a stronger
influence when told than when committed to print. The volume
taken up at noonday, though rehearsing the same incidents,
conveys a much more feeble impression than is achieved by the
voice of the speaker on a circle of fireside auditors, who hang
upon the narrative as the narrator details the minute incidents
which serve to give it authenticity, and lowers his voice with an
affectation of mystery while he approaches the fearful and
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Tono Bungay by H. G. Wells: him, poor devil, where he is. But anyhow,--here goes!"
V
It came to me in the small hours that the real moral touchstone
for this great doubting of mind was Marion. I lay composing
statements of my problem and imagined myself delivering them to
her--and she, goddess-like and beautiful; giving her fine,
simply-worded judgment.
"You see, it's just to give one's self over to the Capitalistic
System," I imagined myself saying in good Socialist jargon; "it's
surrendering all one's beliefs. We MAY succeed, we MAY grow
rich, but where would the satisfaction be?"
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Trooper Peter Halket of Mashonaland by Olive Schreiner: the dust off the Boers' feet that he might keep them from suspecting while
he got ready this affair, then you attacked both Rhodes and the Bond (The
Afrikander Bond, the organised Dutch political party, through whom Mr.
Rhodes worked, and by whom he was backed.) for trying to pass a Bill for
flogging the niggers, and we lost fifty pounds we might have got for the
church?' And he said, 'My wife, cannot God be worshipped as well under the
dome of the heaven He made as in a golden palace? Shall a man keep
silence, when he sees oppression, to earn money for God? If I have
defended the black man when I believed him to be wronged, shall I not also
defend the white man, my flesh-brother? Shall we speak when one man is
wronged and not when it is another?'
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