| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Finished by H. Rider Haggard: We could not go very fast because of the difficult and swampy
nature of the ground; also the great heat of the day told on the
horses. Thus it came about that when we reached the ford we were
not more than ten minutes ahead of our active pursuers, good
runners every one of them, and accustomed to the country. I
suppose that they had orders to kill or capture us at any cost,
for instead of giving up the chase, as I hoped they would, they
stuck to us in surprising fashion.
We splashed through the river, and luckily on the further bank
were met by Footsack who had seen us coming and guessed that
something was wrong.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Youth by Joseph Conrad: ing still under a cloud of smoke and bearing a glowing
mass of coal within.
"Then the oars were got out, and the boats forming in
a line moved round her remains as if in procession--the
long-boat leading. As we pulled across her stern a slim
dart of fire shot out viciously at us, and suddenly she
went down, head first, in a great hiss of steam. The
unconsumed stern was the last to sink; but the paint had
gone, had cracked, had peeled off, and there were no
letters, there was no word, no stubborn device that was
like her soul, to flash at the rising sun her creed and her
Youth |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Mirror of the Sea by Joseph Conrad: glorious ceremony with certain fashionable rites and preliminary
incantations, wherein the conception of its true nature has been
lost. To apprehend the true aspect, force, and morality of war as
a natural function of mankind one requires a feather in the hair
and a ring in the nose, or, better still, teeth filed to a point
and a tattooed breast. Unfortunately, a return to such simple
ornamentation is impossible. We are bound to the chariot of
progress. There is no going back; and, as bad luck would have it,
our civilization, which has done so much for the comfort and
adornment of our bodies and the elevation of our minds, has made
lawful killing frightfully and needlessly expensive.
The Mirror of the Sea |
