| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Rescue by Joseph Conrad: that by the way he handles his brig. I shan't be sorry to have
somebody to stand by us. Can't tell when we will get off this
mud, George."
A long board, sailed very close, enabled the brig to fetch the
southern limit of discoloured water over the bank on which the
yacht had stranded. On the very edge of the muddy patch she was
put in stays for the last time. As soon as she had paid off on
the other tack, sail was shortened smartly, and the brig
commenced the stretch that was to bring her to her anchorage,
under her topsails, lower staysails and jib. There was then less
than a quarter of a mile of shallow water between her and the
 The Rescue |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Silas Marner by George Eliot: of, and Godfrey would not be likely to return by the village road,
but by the fields. She continued to stand, however, looking at the
placid churchyard with the long shadows of the gravestones across
the bright green hillocks, and at the glowing autumn colours of the
Rectory trees beyond. Before such calm external beauty the presence
of a vague fear is more distinctly felt--like a raven flapping its
slow wing across the sunny air. Nancy wished more and more that
Godfrey would come in.
CHAPTER XVIII
Some one opened the door at the other end of the room, and Nancy
felt that it was her husband. She turned from the window with
 Silas Marner |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Lay Morals by Robert Louis Stevenson: fed, ill-clad, ill-taught, ill-housed, insolently treated,
and driven to their mines and workshops by the lash of
famine. So much, in other men's affairs, we have begun to
see clearly; we have begun to despair of virtue in these
other men, and from our seat in Parliament begin to discharge
upon them, thick as arrows, the host of our inspectors. The
landlord has long shaken his head over the manufacturer;
those who do business on land have lost all trust in the
virtues of the shipowner; the professions look askance upon
the retail traders and have even started their co-operative
stores to ruin them; and from out the smoke-wreaths of
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