| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Glaucus/The Wonders of the Shore by Charles Kingsley: past the huge oaks and green slopes of Tor Abbey; and past the
fantastic rocks of Livermead, scooped by the waves into a labyrinth
of double and triple caves, like Hindoo temples, upborne on pillars
banded with yellow and white and red, a week's study, in form and
colour and chiaro-oscuro, for any artist; and a mile or so further
along a pleasant road, with land-locked glimpses of the bay, to the
broad sheet of sand which lies between the village of Paignton and
the sea - sands trodden a hundred times by Montagu and Turton,
perhaps, by Dillwyn and Gaertner, and many another pioneer of
science. And once there, before we look at anything else, come
down straight to the sea marge; for yonder lies, just left by the
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from King James Bible: eat blood.
LEV 17:13 And whatsoever man there be of the children of Israel, or of
the strangers that sojourn among you, which hunteth and catcheth any
beast or fowl that may be eaten; he shall even pour out the blood
thereof, and cover it with dust.
LEV 17:14 For it is the life of all flesh; the blood of it is for the
life thereof: therefore I said unto the children of Israel, Ye shall eat
the blood of no manner of flesh: for the life of all flesh is the blood
thereof: whosoever eateth it shall be cut off.
LEV 17:15 And every soul that eateth that which died of itself, or that
which was torn with beasts, whether it be one of your own country, or a
King James Bible |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Little Rivers by Henry van Dyke: who comes in tired and dusty from the battle-field, to tell his
story of defeat or victory in the garden of still thoughts where
old age is resting in the peace of honourable discharge. I like
what Robert Louis Stevenson says about it in his essay on Talk and
Talkers.
"Not only is the presence of the aged in itself remedial, but their
minds are stored with antidotes, wisdom's simples, plain
considerations overlooked by youth. They have matter to
communicate, be they never so stupid. Their talk is not merely
literature, it is great literature; classic by virtue of the
speaker's detachment; studded, like a book of travel, with things
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