| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Catriona by Robert Louis Stevenson: The odd thing was that I fancy he believed some part of it himself, or
did at times; I think he was so false all through that he scarce knew
when he was lying; and for one thing, his moments of dejection must
have been wholly genuine. There were times when he would be the most
silent, affectionate, clinging creature possible, holding Catriona's
hand like a big baby, and begging of me not to leave if I had any love
to him; of which, indeed, I had none, but all the more to his daughter.
He would press and indeed beseech us to entertain him with our talk, a
thing very difficult in the state of our relations; and again break
forth in pitiable regrets for his own land and friends, or into Gaelic
singing.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Professor by Charlotte Bronte: saliva and handfuls of Low Country mud. You might smooth to the
utmost the path of learning, remove every pebble from the track;
but then you must finally insist with decision on the pupil
taking your arm and allowing himself to be led quietly along the
prepared road. When I had brought down my lesson to the lowest
level of my dullest pupil's capacity--when I had shown myself the
mildest, the most tolerant of masters--a word of impertinence, a
movement of disobedience, changed me at once into a despot. I
offered then but one alternative--submission and acknowledgment
of error, or ignominious expulsion. This system answered, and my
influence, by degrees, became established on a firm basis. "The
The Professor |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Records of a Family of Engineers by Robert Louis Stevenson: seven hours' work upon the site of the building. The smiths
and joiners, who landed at half-past six a.m., did not leave
the rock till a quarter-past eleven p.m., having been at work,
with little intermission, for sixteen hours and three-
quarters. When the water left the rock, they were employed at
the lower parts of the beacon, and as the tide rose or fell,
they shifted the place of their operations. From these
exertions, the fixing and securing of the beacon made rapid
advancement, as the men were now landed in the morning and
remained throughout the day. But, as a sudden change of
weather might have prevented their being taken off at the
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