| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Marie by H. Rider Haggard: these hills and there collect geological specimens and locate the strike
of his copper vein. On this particular Sabbath, which was very hot,
after he had done whatever he intended to do, he dismounted from his
horse, a tame old beast. Leaving it loose, he partook of the meal he
had brought with him, which seems to have included a bottle of peach
brandy that induced slumber.
Waking up towards evening, he found that his horse had gone, and at once
jumped to the conclusion that it had been stolen by Kaffirs, although in
truth the animal had but strolled over a ridge in search of grass.
Running hither and thither to seek it, he presently crossed this ridge
and met the horse, apparently being led away by two of the Red Kaffirs,
Marie |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Within the Tides by Joseph Conrad: mysterious sympathies, disregarding the differences of age and
position, which in this case might have been explained by the
failure of philosophy to meet a very real worry of a practical
kind.
After a turn or two and some casual talk the professor said
suddenly: "My late son was in your school - do you know? I can
imagine that had he lived and you had ever met you would have
understood each other. He too was inclined to action."
He sighed, then, shaking off the mournful thought and with a nod at
the dusky part of the terrace where the dress of his daughter made
a luminous stain: "I really wish you would drop in that quarter a
Within the Tides |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Nada the Lily by H. Rider Haggard: up among the Boers and took their country for the Queen.
Why did you do this, my father? I will answer, who know the truth. You
did it because, had it not been done, the Zulus would have stamped out
the Boers. Were not Cetywayo's impis gathered against the land, and
was it not because it became the Queen's land that at your word he
sent them murmuring to their kraals?[1] To save bloodshed you annexed
the country beyond the Vaal. Perhaps it had been better to leave it,
since "Death chooses for himself," and after all there was killing--of
our own people, and with the killing, shame. But in those days we did
not guess what we should live to see, and of Majuba we thought only as
a little hill!
Nada the Lily |
