| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe: "But why didn't you free your slaves?"
"Well, I wasn't up to that. To hold them as tools for money-making,
I could not;--have them to help spend money, you know, didn't
look quite so ugly to me. Some of them were old house-servants,
to whom I was much attached; and the younger ones were children
to the old. All were well satisfied to be as they were." He paused,
and walked reflectively up and down the room.
"There was," said St. Clare, "a time in my life when I had
plans and hopes of doing something in this world, more than to
float and drift. I had vague, indistinct yearnings to be a sort
of emancipator,--to free my native land from this spot and stain.
Uncle Tom's Cabin |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Memoir of Fleeming Jenkin by Robert Louis Stevenson: walk in Syra with A-, but in vain endeavoured to amuse myself or to
spend money; the first effort resulting in singing DOODAH to a
passing Greek or two, the second in spending, no, in making A-
spend, threepence on coffee for three.
'May 16.
'On coming on deck, I found we were at anchor in Canea bay, and saw
one of the most lovely sights man could witness. Far on either
hand stretch bold mountain capes, Spada and Maleka, tender in
colour, bold in outline; rich sunny levels lie beneath them, framed
by the azure sea. Right in front, a dark brown fortress girdles
white mosques and minarets. Rich and green, our mountain capes
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Middlemarch by George Eliot: who for some reason seemed more inclined to ruminate than to speak.
"One could hardly say that the feeling you mention about Fred
is wrong--or rather, mistaken--though no man ought to make a claim
on such feeling."
"Well, well," said Caleb, "it's a secret. You will not tell Fred."
"Certainly not. But I shall carry the other good news--that you
can afford the loss he caused you."
Mr. Farebrother left the house soon after, and seeing Mary in the
orchard with Letty, went to say good-by to her. They made a pretty
picture in the western light which brought out the brightness of the
apples on the old scant-leaved boughs--Mary in her lavender gingham
Middlemarch |
