| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Island of Doctor Moreau by H. G. Wells: But as it was I suddenly began to sob and weep, as I had never done
since I was a little child. The tears ran down my face. In a passion
of despair I struck with my fists at the water in the bottom of the boat,
and kicked savagely at the gunwale. I prayed aloud for God to let
me die.
VI. THE EVIL-LOOKING BOATMEN.
BUT the islanders, seeing that I was really adrift, took pity on me.
I drifted very slowly to the eastward, approaching the island slantingly;
and presently I saw, with hysterical relief, the launch come round and
return towards me. She was heavily laden, and I could make out as she
drew nearer Montgomery's white-haired, broad-shouldered companion sitting
The Island of Doctor Moreau |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Lady Susan by Jane Austen: my dear sister, too minutely on this point," continued she, taking me
affectionately by the hand; "I honestly own that there is something to
conceal. Frederica makes me very unhappy! Her applying to Mr. De Courcy
hurt me particularly." "What is it you mean to infer," said I, " by this
appearance of mystery? If you think your daughter at all attached to
Reginald, her objecting to Sir James could not less deserve to be attended
to than if the cause of her objecting had been a consciousness of his folly
; and why should your ladyship, at any rate, quarrel with my brother for an
interference which, you must know, it is not in his nature to refuse when
urged in such a manner?"
"His disposition, you know, is warm, and he came to expostulate with me;
Lady Susan |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Letters from England by Elizabeth Davis Bancroft: long prose passage, so much more difficult than verse. Several of
those present with whom the book was a favorite, were so glad to
hear from me that it was as TRUE as interesting, for they had
regarded it as partly a work of imagination. Lady Byron had told
Mr. Rogers when she came in that Lady Lovelace, her daughter (Ada)
wished also to pay him a visit, and would come after breakfast to
join us for half an hour. She also had not seen Rogers, I BELIEVE,
ever. Lady Lovelace joined us soon after breakfast, and as we were
speaking of the enchantment of Stafford House on Wednesday evening,
Mr. Rogers proposed to go over it and see its fine pictures by
daylight. He immediately went himself by a short back passage
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