| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Lock and Key Library by Julian Hawthorne, Ed.: amidst the roots of a giant parasite plant, the leaves and blossoms
of which climbed up the sides of the cave with its antediluvian
relics. The gleam was the gleam of gold, and on removing the loose
earth round the roots of the plant, we came on-- No, I will not, I
dare not, describe it. The gold digger would cast it aside; the
naturalist would pause not to heed it; and did I describe it, and
chemistry deign to subject it to analysis, could chemistry alone
detach or discover its boasted virtues?
Its particles, indeed, are very minute, not seeming readily to
crystallize with each other; each in itself of uniform shape and
size, spherical as the egg which contains the germ of life, and
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain: repinings; conscience-smitten, too -- he could not meet
Amy Lawrence's eye, he could not brook her loving
gaze. But when he saw this small new-comer his soul
was all ablaze with bliss in a moment. The next
moment he was "showing off" with all his might --
cuffing boys, pulling hair, making faces -- in a word,
using every art that seemed likely to fascinate a girl and
win her applause. His exaltation had but one alloy
-- the memory of his humiliation in this angel's garden
-- and that record in sand was fast washing out, under
the waves of happiness that were sweeping over it now.
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Marie by H. Rider Haggard: dignified and patriotic, declaimed to me loudly about the bad behaviour
of the Boers, who hated and traduced missionaries, loathed and
abominated British rule and permanent officials, loved slavery and
killed Kaffirs whenever they got the chance. I listened to him
politely, for it was not wise to cross my parent when he was in that
humour. Also, having mixed a great deal with the Dutch, I knew that
there was another side to the question, namely, that the missionaries
sometimes traduced them (as, in fact, they did), and that British rule,
or rather, party government, played strange tricks with the interests of
distant dependencies. That permanent officials and im-permanent ones
too--such as governors full of a little brief authority--often
Marie |
