| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne: During all this time the necessary works had not been neglected. The
corral was enlarged, for the flock of musmons and goats had been increased
by a number of young ones, who had to be housed and fed. The colonists had
paid visits also to the oyster bed, the warren, the coal and iron mines,
and to the till then unexplored districts of the Far West forest, which
abounded in game. Certain indigenous plants were discovered, and those fit
for immediate use contributed to vary the vegetable stores of Granite
House.
They were a species of ficoide, some similar to those of the Cape, with
eatable fleshy leaves, others bearing seeds containing a sort of flour.
On the 10th of October the vessel was launched. Pencroft was radiant with
The Mysterious Island |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Troll Garden and Selected Stories by Willa Cather: snakes, but he knew enough of Gospellism to feel the significance
of the reptile lying coiled there upon her doorstep. His lips were
cold when he kissed Lena goodbye, and he went there no more.
The final barrier between Eric and his mother's faith was his
violin, and to that he clung as a man sometimes will cling to his
dearest sin, to the weakness more precious to him than all his
strength, In the great world beauty comes to men in many guises,
and art in a hundred forms, but for Eric there was only his violin.
It stood, to him, for all the manifestations of art; it was his
only bridge into the kingdom of the soul.
It was to Eric Hermannson that the evangelist directed his
The Troll Garden and Selected Stories |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Soul of Man by Oscar Wilde: and setting the wholeness of aesthetic impression aside for a
moment, we can intellectually so separate them. An unhealthy work
of art, on the other hand, is a work whose style is obvious, old-
fashioned, and common, and whose subject is deliberately chosen,
not because the artist has any pleasure in it, but because he
thinks that the public will pay him for it. In fact, the popular
novel that the public calls healthy is always a thoroughly
unhealthy production; and what the public call an unhealthy novel
is always a beautiful and healthy work of art.
I need hardly say that I am not, for a single moment, complaining
that the public and the public press misuse these words. I do not
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