| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Sesame and Lilies by John Ruskin: monarchs; and the enlargement of a king's dominion meant the same
thing as the increase of a private man's estate! Kings who think
so, however powerful, can no more be the true kings of the nation
than gadflies are the kings of a horse; they suck it, and may drive
it wild, but do not guide it. They, and their courts, and their
armies are, if one could see clearly, only a large species of marsh
mosquito, with bayonet proboscis and melodious, band-mastered
trumpeting, in the summer air; the twilight being, perhaps,
sometimes fairer, but hardly more wholesome, for its glittering
mists of midge companies. The true kings, meanwhile, rule quietly,
if at all, and hate ruling; too many of them make "il gran rifiuto;"
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy: gazer to blink like Ashton at the disappearance of
Ravenswood. That abstracted pedestrian had edged into the
slit by the adroit fillip of his person sideways; from the
slit he edged into the tavern by a similar exercise of
skill.
The company at the Three Mariners were persons of quality in
comparison with the company which gathered here; though it
must be admitted that the lowest fringe of the Mariner's
party touched the crest of Peter's at points. Waifs and
strays of all sorts loitered about here. The landlady was a
virtuous woman who years ago had been unjustly sent to gaol
The Mayor of Casterbridge |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Riders of the Purple Sage by Zane Grey: meant that mischief was brewing. Moreover, to Venters the
presence of the masked rider with Oldring seemed especially
ominous. For about this man there was mystery, he seldom rode
through the village, and when he did ride through it was swiftly;
riders seldom met by day on the sage, but wherever he rode there
always followed deeds as dark and mysterious as the mask he wore.
Oldring's band did not confine themselves to the rustling of
cattle.
Venters lay low in the shade of the cottonwoods, pondering this
chance meeting, and not for many moments did he consider it safe
to move on. Then, with sudden impulse, he turned the other way
Riders of the Purple Sage |
