| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Arrow of Gold by Joseph Conrad: heard me. Her aspect in my eyes had changed. Her purpose being
disclosed, her well-bred ease appeared sinister, her aristocratic
repose a treacherous device, her venerable graciousness a mask of
unbounded contempt for all human beings whatever. She was a
terrible old woman with those straight, white wolfish eye-brows.
How blind I had been! Those eyebrows alone ought to have been
enough to give her away. Yet they were as beautifully smooth as
her voice when she admitted: "That protection naturally is only
partial. There is the danger of her own self, poor girl. She
requires guidance."
I marvelled at the villainy of my tone as I spoke, but it was only
The Arrow of Gold |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy: sideways felt the pulse and reflected a moment. The sick man was given
something to drink, there was a stir around him, then the people
resumed their places and the service continued. During this interval
Pierre noticed that Prince Vasili left the chair on which he had
been leaning, and- with air which intimated that he knew what he was
about and if others did not understand him it was so much the worse
for them- did not go up to the dying man, but passed by him, joined
the eldest princess, and moved with her to the side of the room
where stood the high bedstead with its silken hangings. On leaving the
bed both Prince Vasili and the princess passed out by a back door, but
returned to their places one after the other before the service was
War and Peace |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from To-morrow by Joseph Conrad: All at once over that man's face there came an ex-
pression of horror and incredulity, as though he
had seen a crack open out in the firmament.
"You--you--you don't think he's drowned!"
For a moment he seemed to her ready to go out
of his mind, for in his ordinary state she thought
him more sane than people gave him credit for.
On that occasion the violence of the emotion was
followed by a most paternal and complacent re-
covery.
"Don't alarm yourself, my dear," he said a lit-
To-morrow |
