| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Land that Time Forgot by Edgar Rice Burroughs: We were all pretty well done up and looked forward to the time
when we could go on deck and fill our lungs with fresh air.
During the whole four days I had not seen the girl, as she
evidently kept closely to her room; and during this time no
untoward incident had occurred aboard the boat--a fact which
seemed to strengthen the web of circumstantial evidence about her.
For six more days after the storm lessened we still had fairly
rough weather; nor did the sun once show himself during all
that time. For the season--it was now the middle of June--the
storm was unusual; but being from southern California, I was
accustomed to unusual weather. In fact, I have discovered that
The Land that Time Forgot |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Deserted Woman by Honore de Balzac: felt a wild longing to throw himself at her feet; but he was afraid of
making himself ridiculous, so he held his enthusiasm and his thoughts
in check. He was afraid, too, that he might totally fail to express
them, and in no less terror of some awful rejection on her part, or of
her mockery, an apprehension which strikes like ice to the most fervid
soul. The revulsion which led him to crush down every feeling as it
sprang up in his heart cost him the intense pain that diffident and
ambitious natures experience in the frequent crises when they are
compelled to stifle their longings. And yet, in spite of himself, he
broke the silence to say in a faltering voice:
"Madame, permit me to give way to one of the strongest emotions of my
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Menexenus by Plato: writings. But the testimony of Aristotle cannot always be distinguished
from that of a later age (see above); and has various degrees of
importance. Those writings which he cites without mentioning Plato, under
their own names, e.g. the Hippias, the Funeral Oration, the Phaedo, etc.,
have an inferior degree of evidence in their favour. They may have been
supposed by him to be the writings of another, although in the case of
really great works, e.g. the Phaedo, this is not credible; those again
which are quoted but not named, are still more defective in their external
credentials. There may be also a possibility that Aristotle was mistaken,
or may have confused the master and his scholars in the case of a short
writing; but this is inconceivable about a more important work, e.g. the
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