| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Rescue by Joseph Conrad: whites from over there. This is the beginning of many stratagems.
Wasub! Daman, the son of a dog, has suddenly made prisoners two
of my own people. My face is made black."
"Tse! Tse! What ferocity is that! One should not offer shame to a
friend or to a friend's brother lest revenge come sweeping like a
flood. Yet can an Illanun chief be other than tyrannical? My old
eyes have seen much but they never saw a tiger change its
stripes. Ya-wa! The tiger can not. This is the wisdom of us
ignorant Malay men. The wisdom of white Tuans is great. They
think that by the power of many speeches the tiger may--" He
broke off and in a crisp, busy tone said: "The rudder dwells
The Rescue |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave by Frederick Douglass: merrily before the gentle gale, and I sadly before
the bloody whip! You are freedom's swift-winged
angels, that fly round the world; I am confined in
bands of iron! O that I were free! O, that I were
on one of your gallant decks, and under your pro-
tecting wing! Alas! betwixt me and you, the turbid
waters roll. Go on, go on. O that I could also go!
Could I but swim! If I could fly! O, why was I born
a man, of whom to make a brute! The glad ship
is gone; she hides in the dim distance. I am left in
the hottest hell of unending slavery. O God, save
The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Eugenie Grandet by Honore de Balzac: his pay in splendid fields belonging to a community of women whose
lands had been reserved for the last lot.
Under the Consulate Grandet became mayor, governed wisely, and
harvested still better pickings. Under the Empire he was called
Monsieur Grandet. Napoleon, however, did not like republicans, and
superseded Monsieur Grandet (who was supposed to have worn the
Phrygian cap) by a man of his own surroundings, a future baron of the
Empire. Monsieur Grandet quitted office without regret. He had
constructed in the interests of the town certain fine roads which led
to his own property; his house and lands, very advantageously
assessed, paid moderate taxes; and since the registration of his
Eugenie Grandet |
