| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Main Street by Sinclair Lewis: useful to me, but only a few of you can take my place, because
I have one virtue (only one): I have given up father and
mother and children for the love of God.
"Here's the test for you: Do you come to `conquer the
East,' as people say, or do you come to conquer yourself?
"It's so much more complicated than any of you know--so
much more complicated than I knew when I put on Ground
Grippers and started out to reform the world. The final
complication in `conquering Washington' or `conquering New
York' is that the conquerors must beyond all things not
conquer! It must have been so easy in the good old days when
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Confidence by Henry James: he could not make it up to her, the only reasonable thing was to keep
out of her way. He had stepped into her path now, and the proper
thing was to step out of it. If it could give her no pleasure
to see him again, it could certainly do him no good to see her.
He had seen her by this time pretty well--as far as mere seeing went,
and as yet, apparently, he was none the worse for that; but his hope
that he should himself escape unperceived had now become acute.
It is singular that this hope should not have led him instantly
to turn his back and move away; but the explanation of his
imprudent delay is simply that he wished to see a little more
of Miss Vivian. He was unable to bring himself to the point.
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Damnation of Theron Ware by Harold Frederic: The window was open, and his strained hearing thought
it caught the sound of faint laughter. He continued
to gaze at the place where the vision had appeared,
the while a novel and strange perception unfolded itself
upon his mind.
He had come there in the hope of encountering Celia Madden.
Now that he looked this fact in the face, there was nothing
remarkable about it. In truth, it was simplicity itself.
He was still a sick man, weak in body and dejected in spirits.
The thought of how unhappy and unstrung he was came to him
now with an insistent pathos that brought tears to his eyes.
The Damnation of Theron Ware |
