| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Lady Baltimore by Owen Wister: suffer and to win. My dear aunt, you could not see what I have seen here,
and write to me as you do; and if those years have left upon your heart a
scar which will not vanish, do not ask me, who came afterward, to wear
the scar also. I should then resemble certain of the younger ones here,
with less excuse than is theirs. As for the negro, forgive me if I assure
you that you retain an Abolitionist exaltation for a creature who does
not exist, or whose existence is an ineffectual drop in the bucket, a
creature on grateful knees raising faithful eyes to one who has struck
off his chains of slavery, whereas the creature who does exist is--"
I paused here in my letter to Aunt Carola, and sought for some fitting
expression that should characterize for her with sufficient severity the
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Betty Zane by Zane Grey: Was it necessary to keep me here all this time to explain that you were on
duty?"
"You know sometimes it is difficult to explain," said Alfred, "besides, the
situation had its charm. No, I am not a robber, and I don't believe you
thought so. I have only thwarted a young lady's whim, which I am aware is a
great crime. I am very sorry. Goodbye."
Betty gave him a withering glance from her black eyes, wheeled her pony and
galloped away. A mellow laugh was borne to her ears before she got out of
hearing, and again the red blood mantled her cheeks.
"Heavens! What a little beauty," said Alfred to himself, as he watched the
graceful rider disappear. "What spirit! Now, I wonder who she can be. She had
Betty Zane |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Critias by Plato: these canals were at intervals of a hundred stadia, and by them they
brought down the wood from the mountains to the city, and conveyed the
fruits of the earth in ships, cutting transverse passages from one canal
into another, and to the city. Twice in the year they gathered the fruits
of the earth--in winter having the benefit of the rains of heaven, and in
summer the water which the land supplied by introducing streams from the
canals.
As to the population, each of the lots in the plain had to find a leader
for the men who were fit for military service, and the size of a lot was a
square of ten stadia each way, and the total number of all the lots was
sixty thousand. And of the inhabitants of the mountains and of the rest of
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