| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from My Bondage and My Freedom by Frederick Douglass: has the devil in him, and it must be whipped out. Does he answer
_loudly_, when spoken to by his master, with an air of self-
consciousness? Then, must he be taken down a button-hole lower,
by the lash, well laid on. Does he forget, and omit to pull off
his hat, when approaching a white person? Then, he must, or may
be, whipped for his bad manners. Does he ever venture to
vindicate his conduct, when harshly and unjustly accused? Then,
he is guilty of impudence, one of the greatest crimes in the
social catalogue of southern society. To allow a slave to escape
punishment, who has impudently attempted to exculpate himself
from unjust charges, preferred against him by some white person,
My Bondage and My Freedom |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Records of a Family of Engineers by Robert Louis Stevenson: present depended, the writer requested that he might be called
at daybreak to learn the landing-master's opinion of the
weather from the appearance of the rising sun, a criterion by
which experienced seamen can generally judge pretty accurately
of the state of the weather for the following day. About five
o'clock, on coming upon deck, the sun's upper limb or disc had
just begun to appear as if rising from the ocean, and in less
than a minute he was seen in the fullest splendour; but after
a short interval he was enveloped in a soft cloudy sky, which
was considered emblematical of fine weather. His rays had not
yet sufficiently dispelled the clouds which hid the land from
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Muse of the Department by Honore de Balzac: "that I did not succeed in pleasing Madame de la Baudraye; that would
have made my triumph complete!"
The household that was thus racked by domestic troubles was calm on
the surface; here were two ill-assorted but resigned beings, and the
indescribable propriety, the lie that society insists on, and which to
Dinah was an unendurable yoke. Why did she long to throw off the mask
she had worn for twelve years? Whence this weariness which, every day,
increased her hope of finding herself a widow?
The reader who has noted all the phases of her existence will have
understood the various illusions by which Dinah, like many another
woman, had been deceived. After an attempt to master Monsieur de la
The Muse of the Department |
