| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Daisy Miller by Henry James: His companion, after this, ceased to pay any attention to the
curiosities of Chillon or the beauties of the lake; she opened fire
upon the mysterious charmer in Geneva whom she appeared to have
instantly taken it for granted that he was hurrying back to see.
How did Miss Daisy Miller know that there was a charmer in Geneva?
Winterbourne, who denied the existence of such a person,
was quite unable to discover, and he was divided between amazement
at the rapidity of her induction and amusement at the frankness
of her persiflage. She seemed to him, in all this,
an extraordinary mixture of innocence and crudity. "Does she never
allow you more than three days at a time?" asked Daisy ironically.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Mosses From An Old Manse by Nathaniel Hawthorne: the soil is collected by means of pipes, and thence communicated
to a quadruple row of lamps along the whole extent of the
passage. Thus a radiance has been created even out of the fiery
and sulphurous curse that rests forever upon the valley--a
radiance hurtful, however, to the eyes, and somewhat bewildering,
as I discovered by the changes which it wrought in the visages of
my companions. In this respect, as compared with natural
daylight, there is the same difference as between truth and
falsehood, but if the reader have ever travelled through the dark
Valley, he will have learned to be thankful for any light that he
could get--if not from the sky above, then from the blasted soil
Mosses From An Old Manse |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Virginian by Owen Wister: respectfully at a preacher and be internally breaking all the
commandments. But even with the text I saw real attention light
in the Virginian's eye. And keeping track of the concentration
that grew on him with each minute made the sermon short for me.
He missed nothing. Before the end his gaze at the preacher had
become swerveless. Was he convert or critic? Convert was
incredible. Thus was an hour passed before I had thought of time.
When it was over we took it variously. The preacher was genial
and spoke of having now broken ground for the lessons that he
hoped to instil. He discoursed for a while about trout-fishing
and about the rumored uneasiness of the Indians northward where
The Virginian |
