| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Some Reminiscences by Joseph Conrad: with marked emphasis by the heirs of the French Revolution, which
was not a political movement at all, but a great outburst of
morality. He had no imagination, as the most casual perusal of
"Emile" will prove. He was no novelist, whose first virtue is
the exact understanding of the limits traced by the reality of
his time to the play of his invention. Inspiration comes from
the earth, which has a past, a history, a future, not from the
cold and immutable heaven. A writer of imaginative prose (even
more than any other sort of artist) stands confessed in his
works. His conscience, his deeper sense of things, lawful and
unlawful, gives him his attitude before the world. Indeed, every
Some Reminiscences |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne: through, all contributed to give me a good appetite.
Whilst breakfasting I took the opportunity to put to my uncle the
question where we were now.
"That seems to me," I said, "rather difficult to make out."
"Yes, it is difficult," he said, "to calculate exactly; perhaps even
impossible, since during these three stormy days I have been unable
to keep any account of the rate or direction of the raft; but still
we may get an approximation."
"The last observation," I remarked, "was made on the island, when the
geyser was -"
"You mean Axel Island. Don't decline the honour of having given your
Journey to the Center of the Earth |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Heart of the West by O. Henry: "'It's a change,' says Mame.
"'You'll need another,' says I, 'if you keep on going every night.'
"'Don't be cross, Jeff,' says she; 'it takes my mind off business.'
"'Don't the curiosities eat?' I ask.
"'Not all of them. Some of them are wax.'
"'Look out, then, that you don't get stuck,' says I, kind of flip and
foolish.
"Mame blushed. I didn't know what to think about her. My hopes raised
some that perhaps my attentions had palliated man's awful crime of
visibly introducing nourishment into his system. She talked some about
the stars, referring to them with respect and politeness, and I
Heart of the West |
