| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane: and down the line. Curtains of trees interfered
with his ways of vision. He could see the low
line of trenches but for a short distance. A few
idle flags were perched on the dirt hills. Behind
them were rows of dark bodies with a few heads
sticking curiously over the top.
Always the noise of skirmishers came from
the woods on the front and left, and the din on
the right had grown to frightful proportions.
The guns were roaring without an instant's pause
for breath. It seemed that the cannon had come
The Red Badge of Courage |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Tanglewood Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne: for a tedious while afterwards, nothing would be heard of but
grand processions, and public banquets, a nd brilliant
illuminations, and shows of wax-work, with likenesses of the
distinguished officers, as small as life.
In the above-described warfare, if a Pygmy chanced to pluck out
a crane's tail feather, it proved a very great feather in his
cap. Once or twice, if you will believe me, a little man was
made chief ruler of the nation for no other merit in the world
than bringing home such a feather.
But I have now said enough to let you see what a gallant little
people these were, and how happily they and their forefathers,
Tanglewood Tales |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Deputy of Arcis by Honore de Balzac: coldness was not what physicians call congenital; her temperament was
an acquired one. Marrying from /reason/ a man whose mental
insufficiency is very apparent, she made herself love him out of pity
and a sense of protection. Up to the present time, by means of a
certain atrophy of heart, she had succeeded, without one failure, in
making Monsieur de l'Estorade perfectly happy. With the same instinct,
she had exaggerated the maternal sentiment to an almost inconceivable
degree, until in that way she had fairly stifled all the other
cravings of her nature. It must be said, however, that the success she
had had in accomplishing this hard task was due in a great measure to
/the circumstance/ of Louise de Chaulieu. To her that dear mistaken
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