| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Roads of Destiny by O. Henry: the honour of Bellemeade; that a position suited to his powers would
be found for him at once, and hinted that the way would be heartily
smoothed for him to rise to as high places of emolument and trust as
the plantation afforded.
But now, they said, he must be weary, and the immediate thing to
consider was rest and sleep. So the mistress spoke to a servant, and
Whistling Dick was conducted to a room in the wing of the house
occupied by the servants. To this room, in a few minutes, was brought
a portable tin bathtub filled with water, which was placed on a piece
of oiled cloth upon the floor. There the vagrant was left to pass the
night.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Unseen World and Other Essays by John Fiske: All this calls forth an enormous quantity of activity, and causes
American life to assume the aspect of a life-and-death struggle
for mastery over the material forces of that part of the earth's
surface upon which it thrives.
It is thus that we are traversing what may properly be called the
BARBAROUS epoch of our history,--the epoch at which the
predominant intellectual activity is employed in achievements
which are mainly of a material character. Military barbarism, or
the inability of communities to live together without frequent
warfare, has been nearly outgrown by the whole Western world.
Private wars, long since made everywhere illegal, have nearly
The Unseen World and Other Essays |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from A Passion in the Desert by Honore de Balzac: immediately strangled in her last convulsive struggle; besides, he
felt in his heart a sort of remorse which bid him respect a creature
that had done him no harm. He seemed to have found a friend, in a
boundless desert; half unconsciously he thought of his first
sweetheart, whom he had nicknamed "Mignonne" by way of contrast,
because she was so atrociously jealous that all the time of their love
he was in fear of the knife with which she had always threatened him.
This memory of his early days suggested to him the idea of making the
young panther answer to this name, now that he began to admire with
less terror her swiftness, suppleness, and softness. Toward the end of
the day he had familiarized himself with his perilous position; he now
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