| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Pool in the Desert by Sara Jeanette Duncan: Allahabad. My daughter, Dacres.' She was certainly looking very
fresh, and her calm grey eyes had the repose in them that has never
known itself to be disturbed about anything. I wondered whether she
bowed so distantly also because it was Sunday, and then I remembered
that Dacres was a young man, and that the Farnham ladies had
probably taught her that it was right to be very distant with young
men.
'It is almost eleven, mamma.'
'Yes, dear. I see you are going to church.'
'Are you not coming, mamma?'
I was well wrapped up in an extremely comfortable corner. I had 'La
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Christ in Flanders by Honore de Balzac: which Flemish narrators have infused into a story retailed so often to
gatherings of workers on winter evenings, that the details vary widely
in poetic merit and incongruity of detail. It has been told by every
generation, handed down by grandames at the fireside, narrated night
and day, and the chronicle has changed its complexion somewhat in
every age. Like some great building that has suffered many
modifications of successive generations of architects, some sombre
weather-beaten pile, the delight of a poet, the story would drive the
commentator and the industrious winnower of words, facts, and dates to
despair. The narrator believes in it, as all superstitious minds in
Flanders likewise believe; and is not a whit wiser nor more credulous
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Light of Western Stars by Zane Grey: couldn't hear anything but the rush of wind and roar of the car.
I could see only straight ahead. What a road! I never saw a
road in my life till to-day. Miles and miles and miles ahead,
with not even a post or tree. That big car seemed to leap at the
miles. It hummed and sang. I was fascinated, then terrified.
We went so fast I couldn't catch my breath. The wind went through
me, and I expected to be disrobed by it any minute. I was afraid
I couldn't hold any clothes on. Presently all I could see was a
flashing gray wall with a white line in the middle. Then my eyes
blurred. My face burned. My ears grew full of a hundred thousand
howling devils. I was about ready to die when the car stopped.
The Light of Western Stars |
