| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Early Short Fiction of Edith Wharton by Edith Wharton: that it had been strangled by twisting twice round its throat the
necklet she had given to Lanrivain.
The next morning at dawn she buried the dog in the garden, and
hid the necklet in her breast. She said nothing to her husband,
then or later, and he said nothing to her; but that day he had a
peasant hanged for stealing a faggot in the park, and the next
day he nearly beat to death a young horse he was breaking.
Winter set in, and the short days passed, and the long nights,
one by one; and she heard nothing of Herve de Lanrivain. It
might be that her husband had killed him; or merely that he had
been robbed of the necklet. Day after day by the hearth among
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Wife, et al by Anton Chekhov: close-shaven, and it looked as though his moustaches had not been
shaved, but had been pulled out by the roots. Alehin told us that
the beautiful Pelagea was in love with this cook. As he drank and
was of a violent character, she did not want to marry him, but
was willing to live with him without. He was very devout, and his
religious convictions would not allow him to "live in sin"; he
insisted on her marrying him, and would consent to nothing else,
and when he was drunk he used to abuse her and even beat her.
Whenever he got drunk she used to hide upstairs and sob, and on
such occasions Alehin and the servants stayed in the house to be
ready to defend her in case of necessity.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Voyage of the Beagle by Charles Darwin: which possesses some interest, namely, those of old Callao,
overwhelmed by the great earthquake of 1746, and its
accompanying wave. The destruction must have been more
complete even than at Talcahuano. Quantities of shingle
almost conceal the foundations of the walls, and vast masses
of brickwork appear to have been whirled about like pebbles
by the retiring waves. It has been stated that the land subsided
during this memorable shock: I could not discover any
proof of this; yet it seems far from improbable, for the
form of the coast must certainly have undergone some change
since the foundation of the old town; as no people in their
The Voyage of the Beagle |
