| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Ann Veronica by H. G. Wells: dexterous amateur makers of rock sections in the world. He spent
a good deal more money and time than he could afford upon the
little room at the top of the house, in producing new lapidary
apparatus and new microscopic accessories and in rubbing down
slices of rock to a transparent thinness and mounting them in a
beautiful and dignified manner. He did it, he said, "to distract
his mind." His chief successes he exhibited to the Lowndean
Microscopical Society, where their high technical merit never
failed to excite admiration. Their scientific value was less
considerable, since he chose rocks entirely with a view to their
difficulty of handling or their attractiveness at conversaziones
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from In a German Pension by Katherine Mansfield: There was a little piece of candle burning in the enamel bracket. As she
walked up and down she saw her great big shadow on the wall like a grown-up
person with a grown-up baby. Whatever would it look like when she carried
two babies so!
"Ts--ts--ts!" Once upon a time she was walking along a little white road,
with oh! such great big black trees on either side."
"Here you!" called the Frau's voice, "bring me my new jacket from behind
the door." And as she took it into the warm room one of the women said,
"She looks like an owl. Such children are seldom right in their heads."
"Why don't you keep that baby quiet?" said the Man, who had just drunk
enough beer to make him feel very brave and master of his house.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Memorabilia by Xenophon: signs of deep annoyance at the death of his domestic, which, as he
reflects, is a positive loss to him; but as regards his friend his
position is in no wise materially affected, and thus, though he would
never dream of leaving his other possessions disregarded and ill cared
for, friendship's mute appeal is met with flat indifference.[1]
[1] Or, "the cry of a friend for careful tending falls on deaf ears."
Or to take (said he) a crowning instance:[2] with regard to ordinary
possessions, however multifarious these may be, most people are at
least acquainted with their number, but if you ask a man to enumerate
his friends, who are not so very many after all perhaps, he cannot; or
if, to oblige the inquirer, he essays to make a list, he will
The Memorabilia |
