| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Moby Dick by Herman Melville: other thing. First take your leg off from the crown of the anchor
here, though, so I can pass the rope; now listen. What's the mighty
difference between holding a mast's lightning-rod in the storm, and
standing close by a mast that hasn't got any lightning-rod at all in
a storm? Don't you see, you timber-head, that no harm can come to
the holder of the rod, unless the mast is first struck? What are you
talking about, then? Not one ship in a hundred carries rods, and
Ahab,--aye, man, and all of us,--were in no more danger then, in my
poor opinion, than all the crews in ten thousand ships now sailing
the seas. Why, you King-Post, you, I suppose you would have every
man in the world go about with a small lightning-rod running up the
Moby Dick |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Forged Coupon by Leo Tolstoy: because he knew they were true.
Michael Vedensky carried on his studies in the
academy for priests, and that is why, for a long
time past, he ceased to believe in what he con-
fessed to be his creed and in what he preached
from the pulpit; he only knew that men ought to
force themselves to believe in what he tried to
make himself believe.
Smokovnikov was not shocked by Father Mi-
chael's conduct; he only thought it illustrative of
the influence the Church was beginning to exercise
The Forged Coupon |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Jerusalem Delivered by Torquato Tasso: LV
Ubaldo then, and puissant Rosimond,
Of Lancaster the heir, in rank succeed;
Let none forget Obizo of Tuscain land,
Well worthy praise for many a worthy deed;
Nor those three brethren, Lombards fierce and yond,
Achilles, Sforza, and stern Palamede;
Nor Otton's shield he conquered in those stowres,
In which a snake a naked child devours.
LVI
Guascher and Raiphe in valor like there was.
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