| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Master of the World by Jules Verne: For it was there that I was bound, as usual. If they accompanied me I
might be able to offer them a hospitality for which they would scarce
thank me.
I took my hat; and while the housekeeper remained peeping from the
window, I went down stairs, opened the door, and stepped into the
street.
The two men were no longer there.
Despite all my watchfulness, that day I saw no more of them as I
passed along the streets. From that time on, indeed, neither my old
servant nor I saw them again before the house, nor did I encounter
them elsewhere. Their appearance, however, was stamped upon my
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Troll Garden and Selected Stories by Willa Cather: had been making a synopsis of a paragraph at the blackboard, his
English teacher had stepped to his side and attempted to guide
his hand. Paul had started back with a shudder and thrust his
hands violently behind him. The astonished woman could scarcely
have been more hurt and embarrassed had he struck at her. The
insult was so involuntary and definitely personal as to be
unforgettable. in one way and another he had made all his
teachers, men and women alike, conscious of the same feeling of
physical aversion. In one class he habitually sat with his hand
shading his eyes; in another he always looked out of the window
during the recitation; in another he made a running commentary on
The Troll Garden and Selected Stories |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Montezuma's Daughter by H. Rider Haggard: rather of its ruins, and travelling along a little path which the
Indians used to bring down snow from Xaca in the hot weather.
Perhaps there are some five miles of this path before the snow line
is reached, beyond which no Indian dared to set his foot, for the
ground above was holy. Along this path he went, and I was content
to see it, for I knew well that the traveller cannot leave it,
since on either side lie water-courses and cliffs. Mile after mile
de Garcia followed it, looking now to the left, now to the right,
and now ahead at the great dome of snow crowned with fire that
towered above him. But he never looked behind him; he knew what
was there--death in the shape of a man!
Montezuma's Daughter |
