| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Death of the Lion by Henry James: he was a man of resources - he only needed to be on the spot. He
had pocketed the whole poor place while Paraday and I were wool-
gathering, and I could imagine that he had already got his "heads."
His system, at any rate, was justified by the inevitability with
which I replied, to save my friend the trouble: "Dear no - he
hasn't read it. He doesn't read such things!" I unwarily added.
"Things that are TOO far over the fence, eh?" I was indeed a
godsend to Mr. Morrow. It was the psychological moment; it
determined the appearance of his note-book, which, however, he at
first kept slightly behind him, even as the dentist approaching his
victim keeps the horrible forceps. "Mr. Paraday holds with the
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Some Reminiscences by Joseph Conrad: chance has preserved for the edification of posterity. Amongst
other sayings--I am quoting from memory--I remember this solemn
admonition: "Let all thy words have the accent of heroic truth."
The accent of heroic truth! This is very fine, but I am thinking
that it is an easy matter for an austere Emperor to jot down
grandiose advice. Most of the working truths on this earth are
humble, not heroic: and there have been times in the history of
mankind when the accents of heroic truth have moved it to nothing
but derision.
Nobody will expect to find between the covers of this little book
words of extraordinary potency or accents of irresistible
Some Reminiscences |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Rescue by Joseph Conrad: Then her anchor went to the bottom with a rumbling noise
resembling the roll of distant thunder. In a moment her head
tended to the last puffs of the northerly airs and the ensign at
the peak stirred, unfurled itself slowly, collapsed, flew out
again, and finally hung down straight and still, as if weighted
with lead.
"Dead calm, sir," said Shaw to Lingard. "Dead calm again. We got
into this funny place in the nick of time, sir."
They stood for a while side by side, looking round upon the coast
and the sea. The brig had been brought up in the middle of a
broad belt of clear water. To the north rocky ledges showed in
The Rescue |
