| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Persuasion by Jane Austen: but her inclination was growing so strong for a removal,
that she was happy to have it fixed and expedited by a tenant at hand;
and not a word to suspend decision was uttered by her.
Mr Shepherd was completely empowered to act; and no sooner had
such an end been reached, than Anne, who had been a most attentive listener
to the whole, left the room, to seek the comfort of cool air for her
flushed cheeks; and as she walked along a favourite grove, said,
with a gentle sigh, "A few months more, and he, perhaps,
may be walking here."
Chapter 4
He was not Mr Wentworth, the former curate of Monkford,
Persuasion |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Second Inaugural Address by Abraham Lincoln: fundamental and astounding. Both read the same Bible, and pray
to the same God; and each invokes his aid against the other.
It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's
assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces;
but let us judge not, that we be not judged. The prayers of both
could not be answered--that of neither has been answered fully.
The Almighty has his own purposes. "Woe unto the world because
of offenses! for it must needs be that offenses come; but woe
to that man by whom the offense cometh." If we shall suppose
that American slavery is one of those offenses which, in the
providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued
Second Inaugural Address |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Wrecker by Stevenson & Osbourne: seemed to me as if I heard the foaming of the surf and the
voices of the sea-birds about Midway Island. The bruises on
our hands were not yet healed; and there we sat, waited on by
elaborate darkies, eating pompano and drinking iced
champagne.
"Think of our dinners on the Norah, captain, and then oblige
me by looking round the room for contrast."
He took the scene in slowly. "Yes, it is like a dream," he said:
"like as if the darkies were really about as big as dimes; and a
great big scuttle might open up there, and Johnson stick in a
great big head and shoulders, and cry, 'Eight bells!'--and the
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