| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Astoria by Washington Irving: touched to make repairs and procure provisions; and here they
often sheltered themselves during the winters that occurred in
their long coasting expeditions.
The British navigators were, from the first, aware of the value
of these islands to the purposes of commerce; and Tamaahmaah, not
long after he had attained the sovereign sway, was persuaded by
Vancouver, the celebrated discoverer, to acknowledge, on behalf
of himself, and subjects, allegiance to the king of Great
Britain. The reader cannot but call to mind the visit which the
royal family and court of the Sandwich Islands was, in late
years, induced to make to the court of St. James; and the serio-
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Heroes by Charles Kingsley: his haste or in his grief, Theseus forgot to put up the white
sail. Now AEgeus his father sat and watched on Sunium day
after day, and strained his old eyes across the sea to see
the ship afar. And when he saw the black sail, and not the
white one, he gave up Theseus for dead, and in his grief he
fell into the sea, and died; so it is called the AEgean to
this day.
And now Theseus was king of Athens, and he guarded it and
ruled it well.
For he killed the bull of Marathon, which had killed
Androgeos, Minos' son; and he drove back the famous Amazons,
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain: swarming to the rescue from every quarter of my
skull, kept up such a hurrah and confusion and fifing
and drumming that I couldn't take in a word; but
presently when my mob of gathering plans began to
crystallize and fall into position and form line of battle,
a sort of order and quiet ensued and I caught the boom
of the king's batteries, as if out of remote distance:
"-- were not the best way, methinks, albeit it is not
to be denied that authorities differ as concerning this
point, some contending that the onion is but an un-
wholesome berry when stricken early from the tree --"
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court |
