| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Extracts From Adam's Diary by Mark Twain: name, no doubt. It wearies me to fret about it, and it does no
good, anyway. Dodo! It looks no more like a dodo than I do.
Wednesday
Built me a shelter against the rain, but could not have it to
myself in peace. The new creature intruded. When I tried to put
it out it shed water out of the holes it looks with, and wiped it
away with the back of its paws, and made a noise such as some of
the other animals make when they are in distress. I wish it would
not talk; it is always talking. That sounds like a cheap fling
at the poor creature, a slur; but I do not mean it so. I have never
heard the human voice before, and any new and strange sound
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from New Arabian Nights by Robert Louis Stevenson: against the door-post, absorbed in contemplation of the livery and
the steeds.
"Look!" he cried to the young man, "what fine cattle! what an
elegant costume! They belong to the brother of M. de Vandeleur,
who is now within upon a visit. He is a great man, a general, in
your country; and you doubtless know him well by reputation."
"I confess," returned Francis, "that I have never heard of General
Vandeleur before. We have many officers of that grade, and my
pursuits have been exclusively civil."
"It is he," replied the porter, "who lost the great diamond of the
Indies. Of that at least you must have read often in the papers."
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Middlemarch by George Eliot: fulfil a promise to remain at a distance from this neighborhood.
It is in your power to choose. If you insist on remaining here,
even for a short time, you will get nothing from me. I shall decline
to know you."
"Ha, ha!" said Raffles, with an affected explosion, "that reminds
me of a droll dog of a thief who declined to know the constable."
"Your allusions are lost on me sir," said Bulstrode, with white heat;
"the law has no hold on me either through your agency or any other."
"You can't understand a joke, my good fellow. I only meant
that I should never decline to know you. But let us be serious.
Your quarterly payment won't quite suit me. I like my freedom."
Middlemarch |
