| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Golden Threshold by Sarojini Naidu: from the ancient family of Chattorajes of Bhramangram, who were
noted throughout Eastern Bengal as patrons of Sanskrit learning,
and for their practice of Yoga. He took his degree of Doctor of
Science at the University of Edinburgh in 1877, and afterwards
studied brilliantly at Bonn. On his return to India he founded
the Nizam College at Hyderabad, and has since laboured
incessantly, and at great personal sacrifice, in the cause of
education.
Sarojini was the eldest of a large family, all of whom were
taught English at an early age. "I," she writes, "was stubborn
and refused to speak it. So one day when I was nine years old my
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Louis Lambert by Honore de Balzac: Lambert's adventure; he was accustomed to spend the time allowed him
by his uncle for holidays at his father's house; but instead of
indulging, after the manner of schoolboys, in the sweets of the
delightful /far niente/ that tempts us at every age, he set out every
morning with part of a loaf and his books, and went to read and
meditate in the woods, to escape his mother's remonstrances, for she
believed such persistent study to be injurious. How admirable is a
mother's instinct! From that time reading was in Louis a sort of
appetite which nothing could satisfy; he devoured books of every kind,
feeding indiscriminately on religious works, history, philosophy, and
physics. He has told me that he found indescribable delight in reading
Louis Lambert |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Almayer's Folly by Joseph Conrad: fell on his ears in a jumble of torturing sentences, the meaning
of which escaped the utmost efforts of his brain. Who spoke the
Malay words? Who ran away? Why too late--and too late for what?
What meant those words of hate and love mixed so strangely
together, the ever-recurring names falling on his ears again and
again--Nina, Dain; Dain, Nina? Dain was dead, and Nina was
sleeping, unaware of the terrible experience through which he was
now passing. Was he going to be tormented for ever, sleeping or
waking, and have no peace either night or day? What was the
meaning of this?
He shouted the last words aloud. The shadowy woman seemed to
Almayer's Folly |
