| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Shadow Line by Joseph Conrad: to my taste.
"Look here, Mr. Burns," I began very firmly.
"You may as well understand that I did not run
after this command. It was pushed in my way.
I've accepted it. I am here to take the ship home
first of all, and you may be sure that I shall see
to it that every one of you on board here does his
duty to that end. This is all I have to say--for
the present."
He was on his feet by this time, but instead of
taking his dismissal he remained with trembling,
The Shadow Line |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Blix by Frank Norris: crust still on; the "devilish" ham in thick strata between; and,
positively, he had BUTTERED the bread. But it was all one with
them; they ate as though at a banquet, and Blix even took off her
hat and hung it upon one of the nearby bushes. Of course Condy
had forgotten a corkscrew. He tried to dig out the cork of the
claret bottle with his knife, until he had broken both blades and
was about to give up in despair, when Blix, at the end of her
patience, took the bottle from him and pushed in the cork with her
finger.
"Wine, music, literature, and feasting," observed Condy. "We're
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Mansfield Park by Jane Austen: too necessary to Sir Thomas and Lady Bertram for her to be
able to answer it to herself to leave them even for a week,
and therefore must certainly sacrifice every other pleasure
to that of being useful to them.
It had, in fact, occurred to her, that though taken
to Portsmouth for nothing, it would be hardly possible
for her to avoid paying her own expenses back again.
So her poor dear sister Price was left to all the
disappointment of her missing such an opportunity,
and another twenty years' absence, perhaps, begun.
Edmund's plans were affected by this Portsmouth journey,
Mansfield Park |
