| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Life in the Iron-Mills by Rebecca Davis: from far-off Calvary, "Father, forgive them, for they know not
what they do!" Who dare say? Fainter and fainter the heart
rose and fell, slower and slower the moon floated from behind a
cloud, until, when at last its full tide of white splendor swept
over the cell, it seemed to wrap and fold into a deeper
stillness the dead figure that never should move again. Silence
deeper than the Night! Nothing that moved, save the black,
nauseous stream of blood dripping slowly from the pallet to the
floor!
There was outcry and crowd enough in the cell the next day. The
coroner and his jury, the local editors, Kirby himself, and boys
Life in the Iron-Mills |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift: of such marriages are generally scrofulous, rickety, or deformed
children; by which means the family seldom continues above three
generations, unless the wife takes care to provide a healthy
father, among her neighbours or domestics, in order to improve
and continue the breed. That a weak diseased body, a meagre
countenance, and sallow complexion, are the true marks of noble
blood; and a healthy robust appearance is so disgraceful in a man
of quality, that the world concludes his real father to have been
a groom or a coachman. The imperfections of his mind run
parallel with those of his body, being a composition of spleen,
dullness, ignorance, caprice, sensuality, and pride.
Gulliver's Travels |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Pierrette by Honore de Balzac: victim. Madame Vinet could do nothing for her, ground as she herself
was beneath those implacable self-interests which the lawyer's wife
had come at last to see and comprehend. Her husband's imperious will
had alone taken her to the Rogron's house, where she had suffered much
at the harsh treatment of the pretty little creature, who would often
press up against her as if divining her secret thoughts, sometimes
asking the poor lady to show her a stitch in knitting or to teach her
a bit of embroidery. The child proved in return that if she were
treated gently she would understand what was taught her, and succeed
in what she tried to do quite marvellously. But Madame Vinet was soon
no longer necessary to her husband's plans, and after the arrival of
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