| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe: Atkins, who now seemed to speak for the rest, that they loved their
wives as well as if they had been born in their own native country,
and would not leave them on any account whatever; and they did
verily believe that their wives were as virtuous and as modest, and
did, to the utmost of their skill, as much for them and for their
children, as any woman could possibly do: and they would not part
with them on any account. Will Atkins, for his own particular,
added that if any man would take him away, and offer to carry him
home to England, and make him captain of the best man-of-war in the
navy, he would not go with him if he might not carry his wife and
children with him; and if there was a clergyman in the ship, he
Robinson Crusoe |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Red Inn by Honore de Balzac: "Monsieur," said the landlord to the new-comer, "these are all the
provisions I have left," pointing to the supper served to the two
Frenchmen; "I haven't so much as another crust of bread nor a bone."
"No sauer-kraut?"
"Not enough to put in my wife's thimble! As I had the honor to tell
you just now, you can have no bed but the chair on which you are
sitting, and no other chamber than this public room."
At these words the little man cast upon the landlord, the room, and
the two Frenchmen a look in which caution and alarm were equally
expressed.
["Here," said Monsieur Hermann, interrupting himself, "I ought to tell
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Master of the World by Jules Verne: steamers of the Atlantic and Pacific, or of the Indian trade.
If, however, this were a boat of some new design, there had as yet
been no opportunity to observe its form. As to the engines which
drove it, they must be of a power far beyond the fastest known. By
what force they worked, was equally a problem. Since the boat had no
sails, it was not driven by the wind; and since it had no
smoke-stack, it was not driven by steam.
At this point in the report, I again paused in my reading and
considered the comment I wished to make.
"What are you puzzling over, Strock?" demanded my chief.
"It is this, Mr. Ward; the motive power of this so-called boat must
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