| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Last War: A World Set Free by H. G. Wells: brigands in a shattered and attenuated world. Ah, you may smile,
but that had happened before in human history. The world is still
studded with the ruins of broken-down civilisations. Barbaric
bands made their fastness upon the Acropolis, and the tomb of
Hadrian became a fortress that warred across the ruins of Rome
against the Colosseum.... Had all that possibility of reaction
ended so certainly in 1940? Is it all so very far away even
now?'
'It seems far enough away now,' said Edith Haydon.
'But forty years ago?'
'No,' said Karenin with his eyes upon the mountains, 'I think you
The Last War: A World Set Free |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle: tall fellow, for his shoulders were broader by a palm's-breadth than any
that were there, and he stood a head taller than all the other men.
The lasses, also, looked at him askance, thinking they had never seen
a lustier youth.
First of all he went to the booth where stout ale was sold and,
standing aloft on a bench, he called to all that were near
to come and drink with him. "Hey, sweet lads!" cried he "who
will drink ale with a stout yeoman? Come, all! Come, all!
Let us be merry, for the day is sweet and the ale is tingling.
Come hither, good yeoman, and thou, and thou; for not a farthing
shall one of you pay. Nay, turn hither, thou lusty beggar,
The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Within the Tides by Joseph Conrad: because his conscience worried him for killing an innocent man.
"Wanted somebody to tell him it was all right," growled my old
ruffian, contemptuously. "He told the parson that I knew this
Cloete who had tried to murder him, and so the parson (he worked
among the dock labourers) once spoke to me about it. That skunk of
a fellow finding himself trapped yelled for mercy. . . Promised to
be good and so on. . . Then he went crazy . . . screamed and threw
himself about, beat his head against the bulkheads . . . you can
guess all that - eh? . . . till he was exhausted. Gave up. Threw
himself down, shut his eyes, and wanted to pray. So he says.
Tried to think of some prayer for a quick death - he was that
Within the Tides |
