| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Barnaby Rudge by Charles Dickens: mettlesome fellow, returned the stranger's angry glance with a
steady look, and rejoined:
'It is not a very bold thing to wonder at your going on to-night.
Surely you have been asked such a harmless question in an inn
before, and in better weather than this. I thought you mightn't
know the way, as you seem strange to this part.'
'The way--' repeated the other, irritably.
'Yes. DO you know it?'
'I'll--humph!--I'll find it,' replied the nian, waving his hand and
turning on his heel. 'Landlord, take the reckoning here.'
John Willet did as he was desired; for on that point he was seldom
 Barnaby Rudge |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Mosses From An Old Manse by Nathaniel Hawthorne: pebbles, and felt to be so by himself, in comparison with the
inestimable gems which lay hidden beyond his reach. The volume,
rich with achievements that had won renown for its author, was
yet as melancholy a record as ever mortal hand had penned. It was
the sad confession and continual exemplification of the
shortcomings of the composite man, the spirit burdened with clay
and working in matter, and of the despair that assails the higher
nature at finding itself so miserably thwarted by the earthly
part. Perhaps every man of genius in whatever sphere might
recognize the image of his own experience in Aylmer's journal.
So deeply did these reflections affect Georgiana that she laid
 Mosses From An Old Manse |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Almayer's Folly by Joseph Conrad: voice calling out gaily, and saw Dain's face brighten with joy as
he leaped on shore. She hated the sound of that voice ever
since.
After that day she left off visiting Almayer's compound, and
passed the noon hours under the shade of the brig awning. She
watched for his coming with heart beating quicker and quicker, as
he approached, into a wild tumult of newly-aroused feelings of
joy and hope and fear that died away with Dain's retreating
figure, leaving her tired out, as if after a struggle, sitting
still for a long time in dreamy languor. Then she paddled home
slowly in the afternoon, often letting her canoe float with the
 Almayer's Folly |