| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Mirror of the Sea by Joseph Conrad: am bearing those few pages in the twilight, with the hope of
finding in an inland valley the silent welcome of some patient
listener.
XLVI.
"A fellow has now no chance of promotion unless he jumps into the
muzzle of a gun and crawls out of the touch-hole."
He who, a hundred years ago, more or less, pronounced the above
words in the uneasiness of his heart, thirsting for professional
distinction, was a young naval officer. Of his life, career,
achievements, and end nothing is preserved for the edification of
his young successors in the fleet of to-day - nothing but this
The Mirror of the Sea |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Massimilla Doni by Honore de Balzac: and cautious silence; nothing could be more significant or more
thoroughly Venetian than the outbreak and its sudden suppression.
"I need say nothing of the coronation march announcing the
enthronement of Osiride, intended by the King as a challenge to Moses;
to hear it is enough. Their famous Beethoven has written nothing
grander. And this march, full of earthly pomp, contrasts finely with
the march of the Israelites. Compare them, and you will see that the
music is full of purpose.
"Elcia declares her love in the presence of the two Hebrew leaders,
and then renounces it in the fine /aria/, /Porge la destra amata/.
(Place your beloved hand.) Ah! What anguish! Only look at the house!"
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from At the Mountains of Madness by H. P. Lovecraft: decadent carvings that we obtained any foreshadowing of the final
calamity leading to the city’s desertion. Undoubtedly there must
have been many sculptures of the same age elsewhere, even allowing
for the slackened energies and aspirations of a stressful and
uncertain period; indeed, very certain evidence of the existence
of others came to us shortly afterward. But this was the first
and only set we directly encountered. We meant to look farther
later on; but as I have said, immediate conditions dictated another
present objective. There would, though, have been a limit - for
after all hope of a long future occupancy of the place had perished
among the Old Ones, there could not but have been a complete cessation
At the Mountains of Madness |
