| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Persuasion by Jane Austen: from all those ambitious feelings which have led to so much misconduct
and misery, both in young and old. I hope you think Louisa
perfectly recovered now?"
He answered rather hesitatingly, "Yes, I believe I do; very much recovered;
but she is altered; there is no running or jumping about, no laughing
or dancing; it is quite different. If one happens only to shut the door
a little hard, she starts and wriggles like a young dab-chick in the water;
and Benwick sits at her elbow, reading verses, or whispering to her,
all day long."
Anne could not help laughing. "That cannot be much to your taste,
I know," said she; "but I do believe him to be an excellent young man."
Persuasion |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Ruling Passion by Henry van Dyke: already and driven far out into the gulf. The boat ought to be able
to run down the shore in good time.
One evening as Nataline came down from her sleep she saw Marcel
coming up the rocks dragging a young seal behind him.
"Hurra!" he shouted, "here is plenty of meat. I shot it out at the
end of the island, about an hour ago."
But Nataline said that they did not need the seal. There was still
food enough in the larder. On shore there must be greater need.
Marcel must take the seal over to the mainland that night and leave
it on the beach near the priest's house. He grumbled a little, but
he did it.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Beauty and The Beast by Bayard Taylor: After he had passed the wood and reached the highway which followed
the course of the brook, he paused to consider which course to
take. Southward the road led past Pardon's, and he longed to see
his only friends once more before encountering untried hazards; but
the village was beyond, and he had no courage to walk through its
one long street with a bundle, denoting a journey, under his arm.
Northward he would have to pass the mill and blacksmith's shop at
the cross-roads. Then he remembered that he might easily wade the
stream at a point where it was shallow, and keep in the shelter of
the woods on the opposite hill until he struck the road farther on,
and in that direction two or three miles would take him into a
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