| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Taras Bulba and Other Tales by Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol: warriors. But who was not there? This strange republic was a necessary
outgrowth of the epoch. Lovers of a warlike life, of golden beakers
and rich brocades, of ducats and gold pieces, could always find
employment there. The lovers of women alone could find naught, for no
woman dared show herself even in the suburbs of the Setch.
It seemed exceedingly strange to Ostap and Andrii that, although a
crowd of people had come to the Setch with them, not a soul inquired,
"Whence come these men? who are they? and what are their names?" They
had come thither as though returning to a home whence they had
departed only an hour before. The new-comer merely presented himself
to the Koschevoi, or head chief of the Setch, who generally said,
Taras Bulba and Other Tales |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Black Arrow by Robert Louis Stevenson: deserter clattered down the road; this time a single rider and, by
his splendid armour, a man of high degree. Close after him there
followed several baggage-waggons, fleeing at an ungainly canter,
the drivers flailing at the horses as if for life. These must have
run early in the day; but their cowardice was not to save them.
For just before they came abreast of where the lads stood
wondering, a man in hacked armour, and seemingly beside himself
with fury, overtook the waggons, and with the truncheon of a sword,
began to cut the drivers down. Some leaped from their places and
plunged into the wood; the others he sabred as they sat, cursing
them the while for cowards in a voice that was scarce human.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from A Book of Remarkable Criminals by H. B. Irving: asked her if she had any objection to such a crime. Marie
hesitated, the victim was her mother. Vitalis reminded her what
sort of a mother she had been to her. The girl said that she was
terrified at the sight of blood; Vitalis promised that her mother
should be strangled. At length Marie consented. That night on
some slight pretext Madame Boyer broke out into violent
reproaches against her daughter. She little knew that every
reproach she uttered served only to harden in her daughter's
heart her unnatural resolve.
On the morning of March 19 Madame Boyer rose early to go to Mass.
Before she went out, she reminded Vitalis that this was his last
A Book of Remarkable Criminals |
