| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Varieties of Religious Experience by William James: opened to me, according to his promise, and I was obliged to cry
out: Enough, enough, O blessed God! The work of conversion, the
change, and the manifestations of it are no more disputable than
that light which I see, or anything that ever I saw.
"In the midst of all my joys, in less than half an hour after my
soul was set at liberty, the Lord discovered to me my labor in
the ministry and call to preach the gospel. I cried out, Amen,
Lord, I'll go; send me, send me. I spent the greatest part of
the night in ecstasies of joy, praising and adoring the Ancient
of Days for his free and unbounded grace. After I had been so
long in this transport and heavenly frame that my nature seemed
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Adam Bede by George Eliot: now, at seven? The missis wunna have it a bit later."
"Aye," said Adam, "I'll come if I can. But I can't often say what
I'll do beforehand, for the work often holds me longer than I
expect. You'll stay till the end o' the week, Dinah?"
"Yes, yes!" said Mr. Poyser. "We'll have no nay."
"She's no call to be in a hurry," observed Mrs. Poyser.
"Scarceness o' victual 'ull keep: there's no need to be hasty wi'
the cooking. An' scarceness is what there's the biggest stock of
i' that country."
Dinah smiled, but gave no promise to stay, and they talked of
other things through the rest of the walk, lingering in the
Adam Bede |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Four Arthurian Romances by Chretien DeTroyes: the crowd, there is not one, upon seeing him, but exclaims to his
neighbour: "That fellow rides well lance in rest; he is a very,
skilful knight and carries his arms right handily; his shield
fits well about his neck. But he must be a fool to undertake of
his own free will to joust with one of the most valiant knights
to be found in all the land. Who can he be? Where was he born?
Who knows him here?" "Not I." "Nor I." "There is not a flake
of snow on him; but all his armour is blacker far than the cloak
of any monk or prior." While thus they talk, the two contestants
give their horses rein without delay, for they are very eager and
keen to come together in the fight. Cliges strikes him so that
|
