| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Mirror of the Sea by Joseph Conrad: even if she belonged to him, merely because of the profit she put
in his pocket. No one, I think, ever did; for a ship-owner, even
of the best, has always been outside the pale of that sentiment
embracing in a feeling of intimate, equal fellowship the ship and
the man, backing each other against the implacable, if sometimes
dissembled, hostility of their world of waters. The sea - this
truth must be confessed - has no generosity. No display of manly
qualities - courage, hardihood, endurance, faithfulness - has ever
been known to touch its irresponsible consciousness of power. The
ocean has the conscienceless temper of a savage autocrat spoiled by
much adulation. He cannot brook the slightest appearance of
The Mirror of the Sea |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Lay Morals by Robert Louis Stevenson: To remedy this, a bevy of green ballet-girls came forth and
pointed their toes about the prostrate king. A dance of High
Church curates, or a hornpipe by Mr. T. P. Cooke, would not
be more out of the key; though the gravity of a Scots
audience was not to be overcome, and they merely expressed
their disapprobation by a round of moderate hisses, a similar
irruption of Christmas fairies would most likely convulse a
London theatre from pit to gallery with inextinguishable
laughter. It is, I am told, the Italian tradition; but it is
one more honoured in the breach than the observance. With
the total disappearance of these damsels, with a stronger
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Mad King by Edgar Rice Burroughs: not take a scepter when it was forced upon him?
And the people of Lutha? Were they to be further and
continually robbed and downtrodden beneath the heel of
Peter's scoundrelly officials because their true king chose to
evade the responsibilities that were his by birth?
For half an hour Barney pleaded and argued with the
king, until he infused in the weak character of the young
man a part of his own tireless enthusiasm and courage.
Leopold commenced to take heart and see things in a brighter
and more engaging light. Finally he became quite excited
about the prospects, and at last Barney obtained a willing
The Mad King |
