| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Damaged Goods by Upton Sinclair: suppose that it were possible, how could I take back my signature
which I put at the bottom of the deed? I have pledged myself to
pay in two months for the attorney's practice I have purchased!"
"Sir," said the doctor, "all these things--"
"You are going to tell me that I was lacking in prudence, that I
should never have disposed of my wife's dowry until after the
honeymoon!"
"Sir," said the doctor, again, "all these considerations are
foreign to me. I am a physician, and nothing but a physician,
and I can only tell you this: If you marry before three or four
years, you will be a criminal."
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas: meditations, "you had some motive for coming here, may I beg
to know what it was?"
"Ah, yes; you have ordered your carriage at eight o'clock
precisely?"
"I have."
"You intend visiting Il Colosseo."
"You mean the Colosseum?"
"It is the same thing. You have told your coachman to leave
the city by the Porta del Popolo, to drive round the walls,
and re-enter by the Porta San Giovanni?"
"These are my words exactly."
The Count of Monte Cristo |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Mansfield Park by Jane Austen: but as for this wonderful degree of improvement, I am
sure it may all be resolved into a better style of dress,
and your having nobody else to look at; and therefore,
if you do set about a flirtation with her, you never
will persuade me that it is in compliment to her beauty,
or that it proceeds from anything but your own idleness
and folly."
Her brother gave only a smile to this accusation,
and soon afterwards said, "I do not quite know what to make
of Miss Fanny. I do not understand her. I could not tell
what she would be at yesterday. What is her character?
Mansfield Park |
