| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Father Damien by Robert Louis Stevenson: your letter. It is not the hangman, but the criminal, that brings
dishonour on the house.
You belong, sir, to a sect - I believe my sect, and that in which
my ancestors laboured - which has enjoyed, and partly failed to
utilise, and exceptional advantage in the islands of Hawaii. The
first missionaries came; they found the land already self-purged of
its old and bloody faith; they were embraced, almost on their
arrival, with enthusiasm; what troubles they supported came far
more from whites than from Hawaiins; and to these last they stood
(in a rough figure) in the shoes of God. This is not the place to
enter into the degree or causes of their failure, such as it is.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Damaged Goods by Upton Sinclair: You believe that the disease is without danger, and you take to
yourself the right to expose your wife to what you call the
chance of your being one of those exceptions, for whom our
remedies are without effect. Very well; it is necessary that you
should know the disease which your wife, without being consulted,
will run a chance of contracting. Take that book, sir; it is the
work of my teacher. Read it yourself. Here, I have marked the
passage."
He held out the open book; but George could not lift a hand to
take it.
"You do not wish to read it?" the other continued. "Listen to
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne: cease for a moment. Zigzag streams of bluish white fire dash down
upon the sea and rebound, and then take an upward flight till they
strike the granite vault that overarches our heads. Suppose that
solid roof should crumble down upon our heads! Other flashes with
incessant play cross their vivid fires, while others again roll
themselves into balls of living fire which explode like bombshells,
but the music of which scarcely-adds to the din of the battle strife
that almost deprives us of our senses of hearing and sight; the limit
of intense loudness has been passed within which the human ear can
distinguish one sound from another. If all the powder magazines in
the world were to explode at once, we should hear no more than we do
Journey to the Center of the Earth |
