| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Figure in the Carpet by Henry James: explanation of his appeal. What explanation could be more to the
point than my obvious fitness for the task? I had written on Hugh
Vereker, but never a word in THE MIDDLE, where my dealings were
mainly with the ladies and the minor poets. This was his new
novel, an advance copy, and whatever much or little it should do
for his reputation I was clear on the spot as to what it should do
for mine. Moreover if I always read him as soon as I could get
hold of him I had a particular reason for wishing to read him now:
I had accepted an invitation to Bridges for the following Sunday,
and it had been mentioned in Lady Jane's note that Mr. Vereker was
to be there. I was young enough for a flutter at meeting a man of
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe: pointing to a thicket of trees; "my heart trembles for fear they
have seen us and heard you speak; if they have, they will certainly
murder us all." "Have they any firearms?" said I. He answered,
"They had only two pieces, one of which they left in the boat."
"Well, then," said I, "leave the rest to me; I see they are all
asleep; it is an easy thing to kill them all; but shall we rather
take them prisoners?" He told me there were two desperate villains
among them that it was scarce safe to show any mercy to; but if
they were secured, he believed all the rest would return to their
duty. I asked him which they were. He told me he could not at
that distance distinguish them, but he would obey my orders in
Robinson Crusoe |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from A Footnote to History by Robert Louis Stevenson: the case of the feeble Laupepa, it is certainly not; we have the
proof before us. Nor do I think we should judge, from what we see
to-day, that it would be possible, or would continue to be
possible, even for the kingly Mataafa. It is always the easier
game to be in opposition. The tale of David and Saul would
infallibly be re-enacted; once more we shall have two kings in the
land, - the latent and the patent; and the house of the first will
become once more the resort of "every one that is in distress, and
every one that is in debt, and every one that is discontented."
Against such odds it is my fear that Mataafa might contend in vain;
it is beyond the bounds of my imagination that Laupepa should
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