| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen: her own dignity injured by this ready condemnation--instead
of proudly resolving, in conscious innocence, to show her
resentment towards him who could harbour a doubt of it,
to leave to him all the trouble of seeking an explanation,
and to enlighten him on the past only by avoiding his sight,
or flirting with somebody else--she took to herself all
the shame of misconduct, or at least of its appearance,
and was only eager for an opportunity of explaining
its cause.
The play concluded--the curtain fell--Henry Tilney
was no longer to be seen where he had hitherto sat, but his
 Northanger Abbey |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Mayflower Compact: of the Ends aforesaid; And by Virtue hereof do enact,
constitute, and frame, such just and equall Laws, Ordinances,
Acts, Constitutions, and Offices, from time to time,
as shall be thought most meete and convenient for the
Generall Good of the Colonie; unto which we promise
all due Submission and Obedience.
In Witness whereof we have hereunto subscribed our names
at Cape Cod the eleventh of November, in the Raigne of our
Sovereigne Lord, King James of England, France, and Ireland,
the eighteenth, and of Scotland, the fiftie-fourth,
Anno. Domini, 1620.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Tono Bungay by H. G. Wells: Says if you don't come in everything will smash--But you are
coming in?"
She paused and looked at me.
"Well--"
"You don't say you won't come in!"
"But look here, aunt," I said, "do you understand quite?... It's
a quack medicine. It's trash."
"There's no law against selling quack medicine that I know of,"
said my aunt. She thought for a minute and became unusually
grave. "It's our only chance, George," she said. "If it doesn't
go..."
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