| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy: The words uttered by the peasant had acted on his soul like an
electric shock, suddenly transforming and combining into a single
whole the whole swarm of disjointed, impotent, separate thoughts
that incessantly occupied his mind. These thoughts had
unconsciously been in his mind even when he was talking about the
land.
He was aware of something new in his soul, and joyfully tested
this new thing, not yet knowing what it was.
"Not living for his own wants, but for God? For what God? And
could one say anything more senseless than what he said? He said
that one must not live for one's own wants, that is, that one
Anna Karenina |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Rescue by Joseph Conrad: welcomed the arrival of Mrs. Travers who brought with her a
tragic note into the empty gloom.
"Suspicion is not in my nature, Mrs. Travers, I assure you, and I
hope that you on your side will never suspect either my reserve
or my frankness. I respect the mysterious nature of your
conviction but hasn't Jorgenson given you some occasion to. . .
"
"He hates me," said Mrs. Travers, and frowned at d'Alcacer's
incipient smile. "It isn't a delusion on my part. The worst is
that he hates me not for myself. I believe he is completely
indifferent to my existence. Jorgenson hates me because as it
The Rescue |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from A Footnote to History by Robert Louis Stevenson: and his people can at any moment forcibly interrupt me in my
jurisdiction." Yet in the eyes of Anglo-Saxons the severity of his
code appeared burlesque. I give but three of its provisions. The
crime of inciting German troops "by any means, as, for instance,
informing them of proclamations by the enemy," was punishable with
death; that of "publishing or secretly distributing anything,
whether printed or written, bearing on the war," with prison or
deportation; and that of calling or attending a public meeting,
unless permitted, with the same. Such were the tender mercies of
Knappe, lurking in the western end of the German quarter, where
Mataafa could "at any moment" interrupt his jurisdiction.
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