| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain: It seemed to me a fine thing that the pilot could do as he pleased,
without asking so grand a captain's permission. I took my supper and went
immediately to bed, discouraged by my day's observations and experiences.
My late voyage's note-booking was but a confusion of meaningless names.
It had tangled me all up in a knot every time I had looked at it in
the daytime. I now hoped for respite in sleep; but no, it reveled all
through my head till sunrise again, a frantic and tireless nightmare.
Next morning I felt pretty rusty and low-spirited. We went booming along,
taking a good many chances, for we were anxious to 'get out of the river'
(as getting out to Cairo was called) before night should overtake us.
But Mr. Bixby's partner, the other pilot, presently grounded the boat,
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Familiar Studies of Men and Books by Robert Louis Stevenson: near at hand. Some of his work was done; for already there
had been Dutch teachers admitted into Nangasaki, and the
country at large was keen for the new learning. But though
the renaissance had begun, it was impeded and dangerously
threatened by the power of the Shogun. His minister - the
same who was afterwards assassinated in the snow in the very
midst of his bodyguard - not only held back pupils from going
to the Dutchmen, but by spies and detectives, by imprisonment
and death, kept thinning out of Japan the most intelligent
and active spirits. It is the old story of a power upon its
last legs - learning to the bastille, and courage to the
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Circular Staircase by Mary Roberts Rinehart: "Rather tall, very dark, smooth-shaven. Not bad looking,"
Gertrude said, putting down the book she had been pretending to
read. Halsey kicked a taboret viciously.
"Lovely place this village must be in the winter," he said
irrelevantly. "A girl would be buried alive here."
It was then some one rapped at the knocker on the heavy front
door. Halsey got up leisurely and opened it, admitting Warner.
He was out of breath from running, and he looked half abashed.
"I am sorry to disturb you," he said. "But I didn't know what
else to do. It's about Thomas."
"What about Thomas?" I asked. Mr. Jamieson had come into the
The Circular Staircase |
