| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Ten Years Later by Alexandre Dumas: Buckingham bit his lips with anger, for he was truly in love
with Lady Henrietta, and, in that case, took everything in a
serious light. Rochester bit his lips likewise; but his wit
always dominated over his heart, it was purely and simply to
repress a malicious smile. The princess was then allowing
the eyes she turned from the young nobles to wander over the
green and flowery turf of the park, when she perceived Parry
and D'Artagnan at a distance.
"Who is coming yonder?" said she.
The two young men turned round with the rapidity of
lightning.
Ten Years Later |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Ancient Regime by Charles Kingsley: Moreover, paradoxical as it may seem, railroads and telegraphs,
instead of inaugurating an era of progress, may possibly only retard
it. "Rester sur un grand succes," which was Rossini's advice to a
young singer who had achieved a triumph, is a maxim which the world
often follows, not only from prudence, but from necessity. They
have done so much that it seems neither prudent nor possible to do
more. They will rest and be thankful.
Thus, gunpowder and printing made rapid changes enough; but those
changes had no farther development. The new art of war, the new art
of literature, remained stationary, or rather receded and
degenerated, till the end of the eighteenth century.
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Altar of the Dead by Henry James: disappeared, to a vague or to a particular recognition; but this
unfailing presence was always to be observed when he arrived and
still in possession when he departed. He was surprised, the first
time, at the promptitude with which it assumed an identity for him
- the identity of the lady whom two years before, on his
anniversary, he had seen so intensely bowed, and of whose tragic
face he had had so flitting a vision. Given the time that had
passed, his recollection of her was fresh enough to make him
wonder. Of himself she had of course no impression, or rather had
had none at first: the time came when her manner of transacting
her business suggested her having gradually guessed his call to be
|
