| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Youth by Joseph Conrad: like an absurd dream.
"Do you know what he wanted next? Well, he
wanted to trim the yards. Very placidly, and as if lost
in thought, he insisted on having the foreyard squared.
'I don't know if there's anybody alive,' said Mahon,
almost tearfully. 'Surely,' he said gently, 'there will
be enough left to square the foreyard.'
"The old chap, it seems, was in his own berth, wind-
ing up the chronometers, when the shock sent him spin-
ning. Immediately it occurred to him--as he said after-
wards--that the ship had struck something, and he ran
 Youth |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Copy-Cat & Other Stories by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman: commenced to weep, the pitiful, despairing wail of
a child who sees failing that upon which she has
leaned for support.
Daniel rallied again. The water on his head gave
him momentary relief, but more than anything else
his love for the child nerved him to effort.
"Listen, little Dan'l," he said, and his voice
sounded in his own ears like a small voice of a soul
thousands of miles away. "You take the -- um-
brella, and -- you take the fan, and you go real slow,
so you don't get overhet, and you tell Mis' Dean,
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen: contemplated it as one of those grand events, of which
the ordinary course of life can hardly afford a return.
The strength of her feelings she could not express;
the nature of them, however, contented her friend.
The happiness of having such a sister was their first effusion,
and the fair ladies mingled in embraces and tears of joy.
Delighting, however, as Catherine sincerely did
in the prospect of the connection, it must be acknowledged
that Isabella far surpassed her in tender anticipations.
"You will be so infinitely dearer to me, my Catherine,
than either Anne or Maria: I feel that I shall be so much
 Northanger Abbey |