| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Beauty and The Beast by Bayard Taylor: "If I could--" he brought out, and then paused. "Susan, would you
be glad if I came back?"
His eyes implored her to read his meaning. No doubt she read it
correctly, for her face flushed, her eyelids fell, and she barely
murmured, "Yes, Jacob."
"Then I'll come!" he cried; "I'll come and help you with the oats.
Don't talk of pay! Only tell me I'll be welcome! Susan, don't you
believe I'll keep my word?"
"I do indeed," said she, looking him firmly in the face.
That was all that was said at the time; but the two understood each
other tolerably well.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The American by Henry James: And Mr. Tristram tossed off this happy formula with an assurance
which the numerous class of persons suffering from an overdose
of "culture" might have envied him.
The two gentlemen proceeded along the Rue de Rivoli and into the Palais Royal,
where they seated themselves at one of the little tables stationed
at the door of the cafe which projects into the great open quadrangle.
The place was filled with people, the fountains were spouting,
a band was playing, clusters of chairs were gathered beneath all
the lime-trees, and buxom, white-capped nurses, seated along the benches,
were offering to their infant charges the amplest facilities for nutrition.
There was an easy, homely gayety in the whole scene, and Christopher
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Walden by Henry David Thoreau: born in the open pasture and suckled by a wolf, that they might have
seen with clearer eyes what field they were called to labor in. Who
made them serfs of the soil? Why should they eat their sixty acres,
when man is condemned to eat only his peck of dirt? Why should they
begin digging their graves as soon as they are born? They have got
to live a man's life, pushing all these things before them, and get
on as well as they can. How many a poor immortal soul have I met
well-nigh crushed and smothered under its load, creeping down the
road of life, pushing before it a barn seventy-five feet by forty,
its Augean stables never cleansed, and one hundred acres of land,
tillage, mowing, pasture, and woodlot! The portionless, who
Walden |
