| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from A Pair of Blue Eyes by Thomas Hardy: gentle innocent time--a time which, though there may not be much
in it, seldom repeats itself in a man's life, and has a peculiar
dearness when glanced at retrospectively. He is not
inconveniently deep in love, and is lulled by a peaceful sense of
being able to enjoy the most trivial thing with a childlike
enjoyment. The movement of a wave, the colour of a stone,
anything, was enough for Knight's drowsy thoughts of that day to
precipitate themselves upon. Even the sermonizing platitudes the
vicar had delivered himself of--chiefly because something seemed
to be professionally required of him in the presence of a man of
Knight's proclivities--were swallowed whole. The presence of
A Pair of Blue Eyes |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson: "James must have tint his wits," said Alan. "If this was the
soldiers instead of you and me, he would be in a bonny mess. But
I dare say he'll have a sentry on the road, and he would ken well
enough no soldiers would find the way that we came."
Hereupon he whistled three times, in a particular manner. It was
strange to see how, at the first sound of it, all the moving
torches came to a stand, as if the bearers were affrighted; and
how, at the third, the bustle began again as before.
Having thus set folks' minds at rest, we came down the brae, and
were met at the yard gate (for this place was like a well-doing
farm) by a tall, handsome man of more than fifty, who cried out
Kidnapped |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Youth by Joseph Conrad: polished like ice, shimmering in the dark. A red light
burns far off upon the gloom of the land, and the night
is soft and warm. We drag at the oars with aching arms,
and suddenly a puff of wind, a puff faint and tepid and
laden with strange odors of blossoms, of aromatic wood,
comes out of the still night--the first sigh of the East on
my face. That I can never forget. It was impalpable
and enslaving, like a charm, like a whispered promise of
mysterious delight.
"We had been pulling this finishing spell for eleven
hours. Two pulled, and he whose turn it was to rest sat
Youth |
