| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from To-morrow by Joseph Conrad: name--Bessie--let alone a dam' parlour in a hutch.
Marry! He wants me to marry and settle! And
as likely as not he has looked out the girl too--
dash my soul! And do you know the Judy, may
I ask?"
She shook all over with noiseless dry sobs; but
he was fuming and fretting too much to notice her
distress. He bit his thumb with rage at the mere
idea. A window rattled up.
"A grinning, information fellow," pronounced
old Hagberd dogmatically, in measured tones.
 To-morrow |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Walden by Henry David Thoreau: making a snug bed even there of some hair left after plastering and
of brown paper; for even the wildest animals love comfort and warmth
as well as man, and they survive the winter only because they are so
careful to secure them. Some of my friends spoke as if I was coming
to the woods on purpose to freeze myself. The animal merely makes a
bed, which he warms with his body, in a sheltered place; but man,
having discovered fire, boxes up some air in a spacious apartment,
and warms that, instead of robbing himself, makes that his bed, in
which he can move about divested of more cumbrous clothing, maintain
a kind of summer in the midst of winter, and by means of windows
even admit the light, and with a lamp lengthen out the day. Thus he
 Walden |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Secret Sharer by Joseph Conrad: "To your room, sir."
"Is there another shower coming?"
"I'm sure I don't know, sir. Shall I go up again and see, sir?"
"No! never mind."
My object was attained, as of course my other self in there would have heard
everything that passed. During this interlude my two officers never raised
their eyes off their respective plates; but the lip of that confounded cub,
the second mate, quivered visibly.
I expected the steward to hook my coat on and come out at once.
He was very slow about it; but I dominated my nervousness
sufficiently not to shout after him. Suddenly I became aware
 The Secret Sharer |