| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Ten Years Later by Alexandre Dumas: your forgetfulness. I was wrong. I see you again, and it is
a festival, a great festival, I assure you, solemnly! How is
Athos?"
"Very well, thank you."
"And our young pupil, Raoul?"
"He seems to have inherited the skill of his father, Athos,
and the strength of his tutor, Porthos."
"And on what occasion have you been able to judge of that?"
"Eh! mon Dieu! on the eve of my departure from Paris."
"Indeed! tell me all about it!"
"Yes; there was an execution at the Greve, and in
Ten Years Later |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Gentle Grafter by O. Henry: morning, is there?'
"'Him? No,' says the man. 'He's got an appetite like a chorus girl at
1 A.M.'
"'How'd you get this pipe?' says Tapley to me. 'Eating too many pork
chops last night?'
"I pulls out the paper and shows him the ad.
"'Fake,' says he. 'Don't know anything about it. You've beheld with
your own eyes the marvelous, world-wide porcine wonder of the four-
footed kingdom eating with preternatural sagacity his matutinal meal,
unstrayed and unstole. Good morning.'
"I was beginning to see. I got in the wagon and told Uncle Ned to
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Some Reminiscences by Joseph Conrad: At the moment of stepping over the gangway he checked himself
though, to give me a mumbled invitation to dine at his house that
evening with my captain, an invitation which I accepted. I don't
think it could have been possible for me to refuse.
I like the worthy folk who will talk to you of the exercise of
free will "at any rate for practical purposes." Free, is it?
For practical purposes! Bosh! How could I have refused to dine
with that man? I did not refuse simply because I could not
refuse. Curiosity, a healthy desire for a change of cooking,
common civility, the talk and the smiles of the previous twenty
days, every condition of my existence at that moment and place
Some Reminiscences |
