| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Master and Man by Leo Tolstoy: 'You ought to wrap your feet up, Nikita. Your boots are very
bad.'
Nikita stopped as if he had suddenly realized this.
'Yes, I ought to. . . . But they'll do like this. It isn't
far!' and he ran out into the yard.
'Won't you be cold, Nikita?' said the mistress as he came up to
the sledge.
'Cold? No, I'm quite warm,' answered Nikita as he pushed some
straw up to the forepart of the sledge so that it should cover
his feet, and stowed away the whip, which the good horse would
not need, at the bottom of the sledge.
Master and Man |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte: because it is very unobtrusive in its manifestations."
"How do you know?--how can you guess all this, sir?"
"I know it well; therefore I proceed almost as freely as if I were
writing my thoughts in a diary. You would say, I should have been
superior to circumstances; so I should--so I should; but you see I
was not. When fate wronged me, I had not the wisdom to remain cool:
I turned desperate; then I degenerated. Now, when any vicious
simpleton excites my disgust by his paltry ribaldry, I cannot
flatter myself that I am better than he: I am forced to confess
that he and I are on a level. I wish I had stood firm--God knows I
do! Dread remorse when you are tempted to err, Miss Eyre; remorse
Jane Eyre |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Glasses by Henry James: At the end of an hour Flora had not come in, and I was obliged to
announce that I should have but time to reach the station, where I
was to find my luggage in charge of my mother's servant. Mrs.
Meldrum put before me the question of waiting till a later train,
so as not to lose our young lady, but I confess I gave this
alternative a consideration less acute than I pretended. Somehow I
didn't care if I did lose our young lady. Now that I knew the
worst that had befallen her it struck me still less as possible to
meet her on the ground of condolence; and with the sad appearance
she wore to me what other ground was left? I lost her, but I
caught my train. In truth she was so changed that one hated to see
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