| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Youth by Joseph Conrad: heat seemed hardly bearable at first. On a settee cushion
dragged out of the cabin, Captain Beard, with his legs
drawn up and one arm under his head, slept with the light
playing on him. Do you know what the rest were busy
about? They were sitting on deck right aft, round an
open case, eating bread and cheese and drinking bottled
stout.
"On the background of flames twisting in fierce tongues
above their heads they seemed at home like salamanders,
and looked like a band of desperate pirates. The fire
sparkled in the whites of their eyes, gleamed on patches
Youth |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Travels with a Donkey in the Cevenne by Robert Louis Stevenson: its theory of war, and camped without sentries, leaving that duty
to the angels of the God for whom they fought. This is a token,
not only of their faith, but of the trackless country where they
harboured. M. de Caladon, taking a stroll one fine day, walked
without warning into their midst, as he might have walked into 'a
flock of sheep in a plain,' and found some asleep and some awake
and psalm-singing. A traitor had need of no recommendation to
insinuate himself among their ranks, beyond 'his faculty of singing
psalms'; and even the prophet Salomon 'took him into a particular
friendship.' Thus, among their intricate hills, the rustic troop
subsisted; and history can attribute few exploits to them but
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Juana by Honore de Balzac: Diard's mongrel position, which he himself made still more
questionable, brought him great troubles. Perhaps there is useful
instruction to be derived from the almost imperceptible connection of
acts which led to the finale of this history.
In the first place, the sneerers of Paris did not see without
malicious smiles and words the pictures with which the former
quartermaster adorned his handsome mansion. Works of art purchased the
night before were said to be spoils from Spain; and this accusation
was the revenge of those who were jealous of his present fortune.
Juana comprehended this reproach, and by her advice Diard sent back to
Tarragona all the pictures he had brought from there. But the public,
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