| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Lay Morals by Robert Louis Stevenson: laughed at in the deportment of your rivals.
Most laughable, perhaps, are your indefatigable strivers
after eloquence. They are of those who 'pursue with
eagerness the phantoms of hope,' and who, since they expect
that 'the deficiencies of last sentence will be supplied by
the next,' have been recommended by Dr. Samuel Johnson to
'attend to the History of Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia.'
They are characterised by a hectic hopefulness. Nothing
damps them. They rise from the ruins of one abortive
sentence, to launch forth into another with unabated vigour.
They have all the manner of an orator. From the tone of
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald: now. Of course we was broke up when he run off from home, but I see now
there was a reason for it. He knew he had a big future in front of him.
And ever since he made a success he was very generous with me." He seemed
reluctant to put away the picture, held it for another minute,
lingeringly, before my eyes. Then he returned the wallet and pulled from
his pocket a ragged old copy of a book called HOPALONG CASSIDY.
"Look here, this is a book he had when he was a boy. It just shows
you."
He opened it at the back cover and turned it around for me to see.
On the last fly-leaf was printed the word SCHEDULE, and the date
September 12, 1906. and underneath:
The Great Gatsby |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from From the Earth to the Moon by Jules Verne: whose names figured in the "Book of Honor" of the Gun Club; and
of those who made good their return the greater proportion bore
the marks of their indisputable valor. Crutches, wooden legs,
artificial arms, steel hooks, caoutchouc jaws, silver craniums,
platinum noses, were all to be found in the collection; and it
was calculated by the great statistician Pitcairn that throughout
the Gun Club there was not quite one arm between four persons
and two legs between six.
Nevertheless, these valiant artillerists took no particular
account of these little facts, and felt justly proud when the
despatches of a battle returned the number of victims at
From the Earth to the Moon |
