| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Peter Pan by James M. Barrie: It was then that Mrs. Darling began playing again.
"It's mother!" cried Wendy, peeping.
"So it is!" said John.
"Then are you not really our mother, Wendy?" asked Michael, who
was surely sleepy.
"Oh dear!" exclaimed Wendy, with her first real twinge of
remorse [for having gone], "it was quite time we came back,"
"Let us creep in," John suggested, "and put our hands over her
eyes."
But Wendy, who saw that they must break the joyous news more
gently, had a better plan.
Peter Pan |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Alcibiades I by Plato: bearing this name passed current in antiquity, and are attributed to
contemporaries of Socrates and Plato. (1) In the entire absence of real
external evidence (for the catalogues of the Alexandrian librarians cannot
be regarded as trustworthy); and (2) in the absence of the highest marks
either of poetical or philosophical excellence; and (3) considering that we
have express testimony to the existence of contemporary writings bearing
the name of Alcibiades, we are compelled to suspend our judgment on the
genuineness of the extant dialogue.
Neither at this point, nor at any other, do we propose to draw an absolute
line of demarcation between genuine and spurious writings of Plato. They
fade off imperceptibly from one class to another. There may have been
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from A Prince of Bohemia by Honore de Balzac: mother. The girl, not a very simple innocent, confessed all to her
mother, a respectable matron, who hurried forthwith to La Palferine
and asked what he meant to do.
" 'Why, madame,' said he, 'I am neither a surgeon nor a midwife.'
"She collapsed, but three or four years later she returned to the
charge, still persisting in her inquiry, 'What did La Palferine mean
to do?'
" 'Well, madame,' returned he, 'when the child is seven years old, an
age at which a boy ought to pass out of women's hands'--an indication
of entire agreement on the mother's part--'if the child is really
mine'--another gesture of assent--'if there is a striking likeness, if
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