| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Door in the Wall, et. al. by H. G. Wells: diamonds were very small. I shook my head.
"You seem to know something of this kind of thing. I will
tell you a little about myself. Perhaps then you may think better
of the purchase." He turned round with his back to the river, and
put his hands in his pockets. He sighed. "I know you will not
believe me."
"Diamonds," he began--and as he spoke his voice lost its faint
flavour of the tramp and assumed something of the easy tone of an
educated man--are to be made by throwing carbon out of combination
in a suitable flux and under a suitable pressure; the carbon
crystallises out, not as black-lead or charcoal-powder, but as
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Elixir of Life by Honore de Balzac: "Oh, if it were only possible to keep you here by giving up a
part of my own life!" cried Don Juan.
("We can always SAY this sort of thing," the spendthrift thought;
"it is as if I laid the whole world at my mistress' feet.")
The thought had scarcely crossed his mind when the old poodle
barked. Don Juan shivered; the response was so intelligent that
he fancied the dog must have understood him.
"I was sure that I could count upon you, my son!" cried the dying
man. "I shall live. So be it; you shall be satisfied. I shall
live, but without depriving you of a single day of your life."
"He is raving," thought Don Juan. Aloud he added, "Yes, dearest
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Underdogs by Mariano Azuela: "General, look at the mess these boys have made
here. Don't you think it would be advisable to forbid this
sort of thing?"
"No. It's about their only pleasure after putting their
bellies up as targets for the enemy's bullets."
"Yes, of course, General, but they could do it some-
where else. You see, this sort of thing hurts our prestige,
and worse, our cause!"
Demetrio leveled his eagle eyes at Cervantes. He
drummed with his fingernails against his teeth, absent-
mindedly. Then:
The Underdogs |
