| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe: may be true that the divine justice ought to have the glory of
all those discoveries and confessions, yet 'tis as certain that
Providence, which ordinarily works by the hands of nature,
makes use here of the same naturalcauses to produce those
extraordinary effects.
I could give several remarkable instances of this in my long
conversation with crime and with criminals. I knew one fellow
that, while I was in prison in Newgate, was one of those they
called then night-fliers. I know not what other word they may
have understood it by since, but he was one who by connivance
was admitted to go abroad every evening, when he played his
 Moll Flanders |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Rescue by Joseph Conrad: brig slowly. "It appears we've got to give you a tow now. Of all
the rum in-cidents, this beats all. A boat sneaks up from nowhere
and turns out to be a long-expected friend! For you are one of
them friends the skipper was going to meet somewhere here. Ain't
you now? Come! I know more than you may think. Are we off to--you
may just as well tell--off to--h'm ha . . . you know?"
"Yes. I know. Don't you?" articulated Carter, innocently.
Shaw remained very quiet for a minute.
"Where's my skipper?" he asked at last.
"I left him down below in a kind of trance. Where's my boat?"
"Your boat is hanging astern. And my opinion is that you are as
 The Rescue |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain: was setting in the kitchen door; we could see him
pretty clear, because there was a light behind him.
He got up and stretched his neck out about a minute,
listening. Then he says:
"Who dah?"
He listened some more; then he come tiptoeing
down and stood right between us; we could a touched
him, nearly. Well, likely it was minutes and minutes
that there warn't a sound, and we all there so close
together. There was a place on my ankle that got to
itching, but I dasn't scratch it; and then my ear begun
 The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn |