| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis: see a fellow waiting for a trolley, I always make it a practice to give him a
lift--unless, of course, he looks like a bum."
"Wish there were more folks that were so generous with their machines,"
dutifully said the victim of benevolence. "Oh, no, 'tain't a question of
generosity, hardly. Fact, I always feel--I was saying to my son just the
other night--it's a fellow's duty to share the good things of this world with
his neighbors, and it gets my goat when a fellow gets stuck on himself and
goes around tooting his horn merely because he's charitable."
The victim seemed unable to find the right answer. Babbitt boomed on:
"Pretty punk service the Company giving us on these car-lines. Nonsense to
only run the Portland Road cars once every seven minutes. Fellow gets mighty
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Market-Place by Harold Frederic: with Plowden--you know, the Lord Plowden on my Board."
"I know of him very well," observed the Scotchman.
"Has he a place that he asks people down to, then? That
isn't the usual form with guinea-pigs."
"Ah, but, he isn't the guinea-pig variety at all,"
Thorpe asserted, warmly. "He's really a splendid
fellow--with his little oddities, like the rest of us,
of course, but a decent chap all through. Place? I should
think he HAD got a place! It's one of the swellest old
country-houses you ever saw--older than hell, you know--and
it's kept up as if they had fifty thousand a year.
The Market-Place |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Pupil by Henry James: regards the behaviour of mankind, had noticed more things than you
might suppose, but who nevertheless had his proper playroom of
superstitions, where he smashed a dozen toys a day.
CHAPTER III
At Nice once, toward evening, as the pair rested in the open air
after a walk, and looked over the sea at the pink western lights,
he said suddenly to his comrade: "Do you like it, you know - being
with us all in this intimate way?"
"My dear fellow, why should I stay if I didn't?"
"How do I know you'll stay? I'm almost sure you won't, very long."
"I hope you don't mean to dismiss me," said Pemberton.
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