| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Lair of the White Worm by Bram Stoker: good, so she determined to seize the occasion for watching her in
more detail.
Hastily putting on a dark cloak and hat, she ran downstairs and out
into the avenue. Lady Arabella had moved, but the sheen of her
white dress was still to be seen among the young oaks around the
gateway. Keeping in shadow, Mimi followed, taking care not to come
so close as to awake the other's suspicion, and watched her quarry
pass along the road in the direction of Castra Regis.
She followed on steadily through the gloom of the trees, depending
on the glint of the white dress to keep her right. The wood began
to thicken, and presently, when the road widened and the trees grew
Lair of the White Worm |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table by Oliver Wendell Holmes: it off with him to his hole (in the fourth story) to deal with at
his leisure.]
- Here is another remark made for his especial benefit. - There is
a natural tendency in many persons to run their adjectives together
in TRIADS, as I have heard them called, - thus: He was honorable,
courteous, and brave; she was graceful, pleasing, and virtuous.
Dr. Johnson is famous for this; I think it was Bulwer who said you
could separate a paper in the "Rambler" into three distinct essays.
Many of our writers show the same tendency, - my friend, the
Professor, especially. Some think it is in humble imitation of
Johnson, - some that it is for the sake of the stately sound only.
The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Gettysburg Address by Abraham Lincoln: upon this continent a new nation: conceived in liberty, and
dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war. . .testing whether
that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated. . .
can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war.
We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting place
for those who here gave their lives that this nation might live.
It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate. . .we cannot consecrate. . .
we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead,
who struggled here have consecrated it, far above our poor power
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