| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Silas Marner by George Eliot: child was somehow a message come to him from that far-off life: it
stirred fibres that had never been moved in Raveloe--old
quiverings of tenderness--old impressions of awe at the
presentiment of some Power presiding over his life; for his
imagination had not yet extricated itself from the sense of mystery
in the child's sudden presence, and had formed no conjectures of
ordinary natural means by which the event could have been brought
about.
But there was a cry on the hearth: the child had awaked, and Marner
stooped to lift it on his knee. It clung round his neck, and burst
louder and louder into that mingling of inarticulate cries with
Silas Marner |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain: two or three weeks later that pilot can describe with precision
the boat's position in the river when that quarter twain
was uttered, and give you such a lot of head-marks, stern-marks,
and side-marks to guide you, that you ought to be able to take
the boat there and put her in that same spot again yourself!
The cry of 'quarter twain' did not really take his mind from his talk,
but his trained faculties instantly photographed the bearings,
noted the change of depth, and laid up the important details for future
reference without requiring any assistance from him in the matter.
If you were walking and talking with a friend, and another friend
at your side kept up a monotonous repetition of the vowel sound A,
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Almayer's Folly by Joseph Conrad: the man?"
"Come, delight of my eyes," said Dain to Nina. "Now we go, and
your voice shall be for my ears only. You have spoken your last
words to the Tuan Putih, your father. Come."
She hesitated for a while, looking at Almayer, who kept his eyes
steadily on the sea, then she touched his forehead in a lingering
kiss, and a tear--one of her tears--fell on his cheek and ran
down his immovable face.
"Goodbye," she whispered, and remained irresolute till he pushed
her suddenly into Dain's arms.
"If you have any pity for me," murmured Almayer, as if repeating
Almayer's Folly |
