| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Father Sergius by Leo Tolstoy: refuse his blessing to those who came to seek it. For his
convenience they appointed days when he would receive. They
arranged a reception-room for men, and a place was railed in so
that he should not be pushed over by the crowds of women
visitors, and so that he could conveniently bless those who came.
They told him that people needed him, and that fulfilling
Christ's law of love he could not refuse their demand to see him,
and that to avoid them would be cruel. He could not but agree
with this, but the more he gave himself up to such a life the
more he felt that what was internal became external, and that the
fount of living water within him dried up, and that what he did
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen: the country or kingdom could boast, none were to be compared
with the prospect of Rosings, afforded by an opening in the trees
that bordered the park nearly opposite the front of his house. It
was a handsome modern building, well situated on rising ground.
From his garden, Mr. Collins would have led them round his two
meadows; but the ladies, not having shoes to encounter the
remains of a white frost, turned back; and while Sir William
accompanied him, Charlotte took her sister and friend over the
house, extremely well pleased, probably, to have the opportunity
of showing it without her husband's help. It was rather small,
but well built and convenient; and everything was fitted up and
Pride and Prejudice |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Essays of Travel by Robert Louis Stevenson: havens, well screened from the wind and the commotion of the external
sea, where the sand and weeds look up into the gazer's face from a
depth of tranquil water, and the sea-birds, screaming and flickering
from the ruined crags, alone disturb the silence and the sunshine.
One such place has impressed itself on my memory beyond all others.
On a rock by the water's edge, old fighting men of the Norse breed
had planted a double castle; the two stood wall to wall like semi-
detached villas; and yet feud had run so high between their owners,
that one, from out of a window, shot the other as he stood in his own
doorway. There is something in the juxtaposition of these two
enemies full of tragic irony. It is grim to think of bearded men and
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