| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Battle of the Books by Jonathan Swift: thine own eyes, thou railest without wit, or truth, or discretion.
The malignity of thy temper perverteth nature; thy learning makes
thee more barbarous; thy study of humanity more inhuman; thy
converse among poets more grovelling, miry, and dull. All arts of
civilising others render thee rude and untractable; courts have
taught thee ill manners, and polite conversation has finished thee
a pedant. Besides, a greater coward burdeneth not the army. But
never despond; I pass my word, whatever spoil thou takest shall
certainly be thy own; though I hope that vile carcase will first
become a prey to kites and worms."
Bentley durst not reply, but, half choked with spleen and rage,
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Eugenie Grandet by Honore de Balzac: young man!"
"Let us go and console him, mamma; if any one knocks, we can come
down."
Madame Grandet was helpless against the sweet persuasive tones of her
daughter's voice. Eugenie was sublime: she had become a woman. The
two, with beating hearts, went up to Charles's room. The door was
open. The young man heard and saw nothing; plunged in grief, he only
uttered inarticulate cries.
"How he loves his father!" said Eugenie in a low voice.
In the utterance of those words it was impossible to mistake the hopes
of a heart that, unknown to itself, had suddenly become passionate.
Eugenie Grandet |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom by William and Ellen Craft: for John C. Calhoun and the whole fair sunny
South!" added the trader. So off went their hats,
and out burst a terrific roar of irregular but con-
tinued cheering. My master took no more notice
of the dealer. He merely said to the captain that
the air on deck was too keen for him, and he would
therefore return to the cabin.
While the trader was in the zenith of his elo-
quence, he might as well have said, as one of his
kit did, at a great Filibustering meeting, that
"When the great American Eagle gets one of his
Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom |
