| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Salammbo by Gustave Flaubert: swept away the legionaries. Gisco shrugged his shoulders as he saw
them growing pale. He thought that his courage would be useless
against these exasperated brute beasts. It would be better to revenge
himself upon them by some artifice later; accordingly, he signed to
his soldiers and slowly withdrew. Then, turning in the gateway towards
the Mercenaries, he cried to them that they would repent of it.
The feast recommenced. But Gisco might return, and by surrounding the
suburb, which was beside the last ramparts, might crush them against
the walls. Then they felt themselves alone in spite of their crowd,
and the great town sleeping beneath them in the shade suddenly made
them afraid, with its piles of staircases, its lofty black houses, and
Salammbo |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Padre Ignacio by Owen Wister: "It is nothing," answered the stranger, awkwardly. "He told me you set
great store on a new organ."
Padre Ignacio turned away from the ship and rode back through the gorge.
When he had reached the shady place where once he had sat with Gaston
Villere, he dismounted and again sat there, alone by the stream, for many
hours. Long rides and outings had been lately so much his custom that no
one thought twice of his absence; and when he resumed to the mission in
the afternoon, the Indian took his mule, and he went to his seat in the
garden. But it was with another look that he watched the sea; and
presently the sail moved across the blue triangle, and soon it had
rounded the headland.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Dawn O'Hara, The Girl Who Laughed by Edna Ferber: Bohemia and luxuries! Half a dozen lean
boarding-house years have steered me safely past that.
After such a course in common sense you don't stand back
and examine the pictures of a pink Moses in a nest of
purple bullrushes, or complain because the bureau does
not harmonize with the wall paper. Neither do you
criticize the blue and saffron roses that form the rug
pattern. 'Deedy not! Instead you warily punch the
mattress to see if it is rock-stuffed, and you snoop into
the clothes closet; you inquire the distance to the
nearest bath room, and whether the payments are weekly or
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