| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Red Seal by Natalie Sumner Lincoln: "I caught her peering this way and that during the burglar's
hearing; I don't reckon she could see well through all the veils.
Now, don't get impatient, Mr. Kent; I'm getting to my point - that
woman sitting next to me in the police court was the widow Brewster."
"What!" Kent laughed unbelievingly. "Oh, come, you are mistaken."
"I am not, sir." Mrs. Sylvester spoke with conviction. "Now, why
does Mrs. Brewster declare at the coroner's inquest that she only
heard of the Turnbull tragedy from the McIntyre twins on their
return home?"
"You must be mistaken," argued Kent.
"Why, you admit yourself that the woman was so swathed in veils
The Red Seal |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from My Antonia by Willa Cather: out the hearts and ate them with the juice trickling through
our fingers. The white Christmas melons we did not touch,
but we watched them with curiosity. They were to be picked late,
when the hard frosts had set in, and put away for winter use.
After weeks on the ocean, the Shimerdas were famished for fruit.
The two girls would wander for miles along the edge of the cornfields,
hunting for ground-cherries.
Antonia loved to help grandmother in the kitchen and to learn about cooking
and housekeeping. She would stand beside her, watching her every movement.
We were willing to believe that Mrs. Shimerda was a good housewife
in her own country, but she managed poorly under new conditions:
My Antonia |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Alexandria and her Schools by Charles Kingsley: Mohammed, during his existence, had denied and repudiated, saying that
he worked no miracles, and that none were needed; because only reason
was required to show a man the hand of a good God in all human affairs.
Nevertheless, these later Mussulmans found the miracles necessary to
confirm their faith: and why? Because they had lost the sense of a
present God, a God of order; and therefore hankered, as men in such a
mood always will, after prodigious and unnatural proofs of His having
been once present with their founder Mohammed.
And in the meanwhile that absolute and omnipotent Being whom Mohammed,
arising out of his great darkness, had so nobly preached to the Koreish,
receded in the minds of their descendants to an unapproachable and
|
