| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne: there, added to the picturesqueness of the country. Lake Grant was viewed
from thence in all its extent, and no breath disturbed the surface of its
waters. Top, in beating the bushes, put up flocks of birds of different
kinds, which Gideon Spilett and Herbert saluted with arrows. Orie was hit
by the lad, and fell into some marshy grass. Top rushed forward, and
brought a beautiful swimming bird, of a slate color, short beak, very
developed frontal plate, and wings edged with white. It was a "coot," the
size of a large partridge, belonging to the group of macrodactyls which
form the transition between the order of wading birds and that of
palmipeds. Sorry game, in truth, and its flavor is far from pleasant. But
Top was not so particular in these things as his masters, and it was agreed
The Mysterious Island |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Gods of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs: air; I would almost sooner return and face foes into whose
flesh I may feel my blade bite and know that I am selling
my carcass dearly before I go down to that eternal oblivion
which is evidently the fairest and most desirable eternity that
mortal man has the right to hope for."
"If, as you say, we cannot fight empty air, Tars Tarkas,"
I replied, "neither, on the other hand, can empty air fight us.
I, who have faced and conquered in my time thousands of sinewy
warriors and tempered blades, shall not be turned back by wind;
nor no more shall you, Thark."
"But unseen voices may emanate from unseen and unseeable
The Gods of Mars |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Walking by Henry David Thoreau: requires a direct dispensation from Heaven to become a walker.
You must be born into the family of the Walkers. Ambulator
nascitur, non fit. Some of my townsmen, it is true, can remember
and have described to me some walks which they took ten years
ago, in which they were so blessed as to lose themselves for half
an hour in the woods; but I know very well that they have
confined themselves to the highway ever since, whatever
pretensions they may make to belong to this select class. No
doubt they were elevated for a moment as by the reminiscence of a
previous state of existence, when even they were foresters and
outlaws.
Walking |
