| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad: and at the end of that moving appeal to every altruistic
sentiment it blazed at you, luminous and terrifying, like a flash
of lightning in a serene sky: `Exterminate all the brutes!'
The curious part was that he had apparently forgotten
all about that valuable postscriptum, because, later on,
when he in a sense came to himself, he repeatedly entreated me
to take good care of `my pamphlet' (he called it), as it was
sure to have in the future a good influence upon his career.
I had full information about all these things, and, besides,
as it turned out, I was to have the care of his memory.
I've done enough for it to give me the indisputable right to lay it,
Heart of Darkness |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Works of Samuel Johnson by Samuel Johnson: apologizes for every word which his own narrowness
of converse inclines him to think unusual;
keeps the exuberance of his faculties under visible
restraint; is solicitous to anticipate inquiries by
needless explanations; and endeavours to shade his
own abilities, lest weak eyes should be dazzled with
their lustre.
No. 174. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 1751
Faenum habet vn cornu, longe fuge; dummodo risum
Excutiat sibi, non hic cuiquam parcet amico.
HOR. Lib. i. Sat. iv. 34.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Walden by Henry David Thoreau: rent from end to end, and within a few days see it rapidly going
out. So the alligator comes out of the mud with quakings of the
earth. One old man, who has been a close observer of Nature, and
seems as thoroughly wise in regard to all her operations as if she
had been put upon the stocks when he was a boy, and he had helped to
lay her keel -- who has come to his growth, and can hardly acquire
more of natural lore if he should live to the age of Methuselah --
told me -- and I was surprised to hear him express wonder at any of
Nature's operations, for I thought that there were no secrets
between them -- that one spring day he took his gun and boat, and
thought that he would have a little sport with the ducks. There was
Walden |
