| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Tales of Unrest by Joseph Conrad: reality of our lives by its motionless fantasy of outline and colour.
His followers thronged round him; above his head the broad blades of
their spears made a spiked halo of iron points, and they hedged him
from humanity by the shimmer of silks, the gleam of weapons, the
excited and respectful hum of eager voices. Before sunset he would
take leave with ceremony, and go off sitting under a red umbrella, and
escorted by a score of boats. All the paddles flashed and struck
together with a mighty splash that reverberated loudly in the
monumental amphitheatre of hills. A broad stream of dazzling foam
trailed behind the flotilla. The canoes appeared very black on the
white hiss of water; turbaned heads swayed back and forth; a multitude
Tales of Unrest |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Outlaw of Torn by Edgar Rice Burroughs: It is true that Henry had stationed an outpost upon
the summit of the hill in advance of Lewes, but so lax
was discipline in his army that the soldiers, growing
tired of the duty, had abandoned the post toward
morning, and returned to town, leaving but a single man
on watch. He, left alone, had promptly fallen asleep;
and thus De Montfort's men found and captured him
within sight of the bell-tower of the Priory of Lewes,
where the King and his royal allies lay peacefully
asleep, after their night of wine and dancing and song.
Had it not been for an incident which now befell,
The Outlaw of Torn |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Virginian by Owen Wister: tickets at once, else you became unwelcome. Guests here had
foibles at times, and a rapid exit was too easy. Therefore I
bought a ticket. It was spring and summer since I had heard
anything like the colonel. The Missouri had not yet flowed into
New York dialect freely, and his vocabulary met me like the
breeze of the plains. So I went in to be fanned by it, and there
sat the Virginian at a table, alone.
His greeting was up to the code of indifference proper on the
plains; but he presently remarked, "I'm right glad to see
somebody," which was a good deal to say. "Them that comes hyeh,"
he observed next, "don't eat. They feed." And he considered the
The Virginian |
