| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Amy Foster by Joseph Conrad: and, sitting by the open window, I saw, after the
windless, scorching day, the frigid splendour of a
hazy sea lying motionless under the moon. Not a
whisper, not a splash, not a stir of the shingle, not
a footstep, not a sigh came up from the earth be-
low--never a sign of life but the scent of climbing
jasmine; and Kennedy's voice, speaking behind me,
passed through the wide casement, to vanish out-
side in a chill and sumptuous stillness.
". . . The relations of shipwrecks in the
olden time tell us of much suffering. Often the
Amy Foster |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Daisy Miller by Henry James: These were the words he heard, in the familiar accent of
Miss Daisy Miller.
"Let us hope he is not very hungry," responded the ingenious Giovanelli.
"He will have to take me first; you will serve for dessert!"
Winterbourne stopped, with a sort of horror, and, it must be added,
with a sort of relief. It was as if a sudden illumination had been
flashed upon the ambiguity of Daisy's behavior, and the riddle had
become easy to read. She was a young lady whom a gentleman need
no longer be at pains to respect. He stood there, looking at her--
looking at her companion and not reflecting that though he saw
them vaguely, he himself must have been more brightly visible.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Door in the Wall, et. al. by H. G. Wells: find life toilsome, its rewards, as I come near them, cheap. I
began a little while ago to want the garden quite badly. Yes--and
I've seen it three times."
"The garden?"
"No--the door! And I haven't gone in!"
He leaned over the table to me, with an enormous sorrow in his
voice as he spoke. "Thrice I have had my chance--THRICE!
If ever that door offers itself to me again, I swore, I will go in
out of this dust and heat, out of this dry glitter of vanity, out
of these toilsome futilities. I will go and never return. This
time I will stay . . . . . I swore it and when the time came--
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