| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Life of the Spider by J. Henri Fabre: another; she bites indifferently at whatever comes within reach.
This being so, her poison would have to possess unparalleled
virulence to produce a corpse-like inertia no matter which the
point attacked. I can scarcely believe in instantaneous death
resulting from the bite, especially in the case of insects, with
their highly-resistant organisms.
Besides, is it really a corpse that the Epeira wants, she who feeds
on blood much more than on flesh? It were to her advantage to suck
a live body, wherein the flow of the liquids, set in movement by
the pulsation of the dorsal vessel, that rudimentary heart of
insects, must act more freely than in a lifeless body, with its
The Life of the Spider |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Virginian by Owen Wister: hawss--"
"No," said she, holding firmly his rein and quickening her step.
"A gentleman does not invite a lady to go out riding and leave
her."
His eyes lost their purpose. "I'll cert'nly take you home. That
sorrel has gone in there by the wallow, and Judge Henry will
understand." With his eyes watching imaginary objects, he rode
and rambled and it was now the girl who was silent, except to
keep his mind from its half-fixed idea of the sorrel. As he grew
more fluent she hastened still more, listening to head off that
notion of return, skilfully inventing questions to engage him, so
The Virginian |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Chouans by Honore de Balzac: A murmur came from the group of Chouans, and it was easy to see that
the authority of the new chief was about to be disputed. The young
man, on whom this effect of his words was by no means lost, was
thinking of the best means of maintaining the dignity of his command,
when the trot of a horse was heard in the vicinity. All heads turned
in the direction from which the sound came. A lady appeared, sitting
astride of a little Breton horse, which she put at a gallop as soon as
she saw the young leader, so as to reach the group of Chouans as
quickly as possible.
"What is the matter?" she said, looking first at the Chouans and then
at their chief.
The Chouans |
