| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Black Beauty by Anna Sewell: I had not been in a field since I left poor Ginger at Earlshall.
We came home gently, and Jerry's first words were, as we came into the yard,
"Well, Polly, I have not lost my Sunday after all, for the birds
were singing hymns in every bush, and I joined in the service;
and as for Jack, he was like a young colt."
When he handed Dolly the flowers she jumped about for joy.
38 Dolly and a Real Gentleman
Winter came in early, with a great deal of cold and wet. There was snow,
or sleet, or rain almost every day for weeks, changing only for
keen driving winds or sharp frosts. The horses all felt it very much.
When it is a dry cold a couple of good thick rugs will keep the warmth in us;
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Soul of the Far East by Percival Lowell: comprehensible, but what excuse can be made for a phrase like the
following, "It respectfully does that the august seat exists," all
of which simply means "is," and may be applied to anything, being
the common word--in Japanese it is all one word now--for that
apparently simple idea. It would seem a sad waste of valuable
material. The real reason why so much distinguished consideration
is shown the article in question lies in the fact that it is treated
as existing with reference to the person addressed, and therefore
becomes ipso facto august.
Here is a still subtler example. You are, we will suppose, at a
tea-house, and you wish for sugar. The following almost stereotyped
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Blue Flower by Henry van Dyke: social life which she had permeated unofficially for several
years. The house was sizzling full of people. Those who were
jammed in the parlour tried to get into the dining-room, and
those who were packed in the dining-room struggled to escape,
holding plates of stratified cake and liquefied ice-cream high
above their neighbours' heads like signals of danger and
distress. Everybody was talking at the same time, in a loud,
shrill voice, and nobody listened to what anybody else was
saying. But it did not matter, for they all said the same things.
"Elegant house for a party, so full of--" "How perfectly
lovely Amanda Wilson looks in that--" "Awfully warm day!
|
