| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe: and in its reduplication in the still waters of the tarn. Its
evidence--the evidence of the sentience--was to be seen, he said,
(and I here started as he spoke,) in the gradual yet certain
condensation of an atmosphere of their own about the waters and
the walls. The result was discoverable, he added, in that
silent, yet importunate and terrible influence which for
centuries had moulded the destinies of his family, and which made
him what I now saw him--what he was. Such opinions need no
comment, and I will make none.
Our books--the books which, for years, had formed no small
portion of the mental existence of the invalid--were, as might be
The Fall of the House of Usher |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Margret Howth: A Story of To-day by Rebecca Harding Davis: Every step. Our politicians might have picked up an idea or two
there, I should think! Then he was so cool about it, so skilful!
He fairly rubbed his hands with glee, enjoying the combat. And
he was so sure that the Doctor was savagely in earnest: why, any
one with half an ear could hear that! He did not see how, in the
very heat of the fray, his eyes would wander off listlessly. But
Mr. Howth did not wander; there was nothing careless or two-sided
in the making of this man,--no sham about him, or borrowing.
They came down gradually, or out,--for, as I told you, they dug
into the very heart of the matter at first,--they came out
gradually to modern times. Things began to assume a more
Margret Howth: A Story of To-day |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Under the Red Robe by Stanley Weyman: save me. And you would have me stand by and see the thing done.
No, sir, never; never, though I go to the wheel. I will die a
gentleman, if I have lived a fool.'
'I think that you will do the one as certainly as you have done
the other,' I retorted in my exasperation. And yet I admired
him.
'Oh, I am not quite a fool!' he cried, scowling at me. 'I have
used my eyes.'
'Then be good enough to favour me with your ears!' I answered
drily. 'For just a moment. And listen when I say that no such
bargain has ever crossed my mind. You were kind enough to think
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