| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Tapestried Chamber by Walter Scott: Laird's Jock's stone. There he remained with eyes fixed on the
lists or barrier, within which the champions were about to meet.
His daughter, having done all she could for his accommodation,
stood motionless beside him, divided between anxiety for his
health, and for the event of the combat to her beloved brother.
Ere yet the fight began, the old men gazed on their chief, now
seen for the first time after several years, and sadly compared
his altered features and wasted frame with the paragon of
strength and manly beauty which they once remembered. The young
men gazed on his large form and powerful make as upon some
antediluvian giant who had survived the destruction of the Flood.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Soul of the Far East by Percival Lowell: and perfectly unnecessary construction. One must be antipodally
comprehensive to entertain the idea; as it is, the idea entertains us.
On the same general plan, the nouns precede the verbs in the
sentence, and are in every way the more important parts of speech.
The consequence is that in ordinary conversation the verbs come so
late in the day that they not infrequently get left out altogether.
For the Japanese are much given to docking their phrases, a custom
the Germans might do well to adopt. Now, nouns denote facts, while
verbs express action, and action, as considered in human speech, is
mostly of human origin. In this precedence accorded the impersonal
element in language over the personal, we observe again the
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Boys' Life of Abraham Lincoln by Helen Nicolay: will not be reelected. Then it will be my duty to so cooperate
with the President-elect as to save the Union between the
election and the inauguration, as he will have secured his
election on such ground that he cannot possibly save it
afterward."
He folded and pasted the sheet of paper in such a way that its
contents could not be seen, and as the cabinet came together
handed it to each member successively, asking him to write his
name across the back of it. In this peculiar fashion he pledged
himself and his administration to accept loyally the verdict of
the people if it should be against them, and to do their utmost
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