| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis: desired to know the date of the battle of Saragossa, the definition of the
word "sabotage," the future of the German mark, the translation of "hinc illae
lachrimae," or the number of products of coal tar. He awed Babbitt by
confessing that he often sat up till midnight reading the figures and
footnotes in Government reports, or skimming (with amusement at the author's
mistakes) the latest volumes of chemistry, archeology, and ichthyology.
But Littlefield's great value was as a spiritual example. Despite his strange
learnings he was as strict a Presbyterian and as firm a Republican as George
F. Babbitt. He confirmed the business men in the faith. Where they knew only
by passionate instinct that their system of industry and manners was perfect,
Dr. Howard Littlefield proved it to them, out of history, economics, and the
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Little Rivers by Henry van Dyke: the pampered tourist electric lights, and spring-beds, and a wide
veranda from which he can look out across the water into the face
of the wilderness.
Northward and westward the interminable forest rolls away to the
shores of Hudson's Bay and the frozen wastes of Labrador. It is an
immense solitude. A score of rivers empty into the lake; little
ones like the Pikouabi and La Pipe, and middle-sized ones like the
Ouiatehouan and La Belle Riviere, and big ones like the Mistassini
and the Peribonca; and each of these streams is the clue to a
labyrinth of woods and waters. The canoe-man who follows it far
enough will find himself among lakes that are not named on any map;
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy: I wish you would take three-quarters of the household furniture.
I don't want to be bothered with it. I have a sort of affection
for a little of it that belonged to my poor mother and father.
But the rest you are welcome to whenever you like to send
for it."
"That I shall never do."
"You go by the six-thirty train, don't you? It is now a quarter to six."
"You ... You don't seem very sorry I am going, Richard!"
"Oh no--perhaps not."
"I like you much for how you have behaved. It is a curious thing
that directly I have begun to regard you as not my husband,
Jude the Obscure |
