| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from What is Man? by Mark Twain: years of his life were in the same unremembering condition: if
they knew of any incident connected with that period of his life
they didn't tell about it. Would the if they had been asked? It
is most likely. Were they asked? It is pretty apparent that
they were not. Why weren't they? It is a very plausible guess
that nobody there or elsewhere was interested to know.
For seven years after Shakespeare's death nobody seems to have been
interested in him. Then the quarto was published, and Ben Jonson
awoke out of his long indifference and sang a song of praise and
put it in the front of the book. Then silence fell AGAIN.
For sixty years. Then inquiries into Shakespeare's Stratford
What is Man? |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Men of Iron by Howard Pyle: the lattice top of the arbor broke under him, and with one final
clutch at the empty air he fell heavily upon the ground beneath.
He heard a shrill scream that seemed to find an instant echo;
even as he fell he had a vision of faces and bright colors, and
when he sat up, dazed and bewildered, he found himself face to
face with the Lady Anne, the daughter of the house, and her
cousin, the Lady Alice, who clutching one another tightly, stood
staring at him with wide scared eyes.
CHAPTER 18
For a little time there was a pause of deep silence, during which
the fluttering leaves came drifting down from the broken arbor
Men of Iron |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Contrast by Royall Tyler: and must ever be gratefully received. But to a sol-
dier, who has no fixed abode, such attentions are
particularly pleasing.
DIMPLE
Sir, there is no character so respectable as that of a
soldier. And, indeed, when we reflect how much we
owe to those brave men who have suffered so much in
the service of their country, and secured to us those
inestimable blessings that we now enjoy, our liberty
and independence, they demand every attention which
gratitude can pay. For my own part, I never meet
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