| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Middlemarch by George Eliot: Fred says frankly he is not fit for a clergyman, and I would do
anything I could to hinder a man from the fatal step of choosing
the wrong profession. He quoted to me what you said, Miss Garth--
do you remember it?" (Mr. Farebrother used to say "Mary" instead
of "Miss Garth," but it was part of his delicacy to treat her
with the more deference because, according to Mrs. Vincy's phrase,
she worked for her bread.)
Mary felt uncomfortable, but, determined to take the matter lightly,
answered at once, "I have said so many impertinent things to Fred--
we are such old playfellows."
"You said, according to him, that he would be one of those
Middlemarch |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Woodlanders by Thomas Hardy: his instinct was to speak not a single word to his son-in-law. He
raised Fitzpiers into a sitting posture, and found that he was a
little stunned and stupefied, but, as he had said, not otherwise
hurt. How this fall had come about was readily conjecturable:
Fitzpiers, imagining there was only old Darling under him, had
been taken unawares by the younger horse's sprightliness.
Melbury was a traveller of the old-fashioned sort; having just
come from Shottsford-Forum, he still had in his pocket the
pilgrim's flask of rum which he always carried on journeys
exceeding a dozen miles, though he seldom drank much of it. He
poured it down the surgeon's throat, with such effect that he
The Woodlanders |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from 1492 by Mary Johntson: bucklers and _hatchets of true copper_. They were strong
and fearless, and they seemed to say, ``Here before us is
great wonder, but wonder does not subdue our minds!''
Their language had, it is true, the flow and clink of Indian
tongues, yet was greatly different. We had work to
understand. But they were past masters of gesture.
The Admiral sent for presents. Again, these did not
ravish, though the cacique and his family and the rowers
regarded with interest such strange matters. But they
seemed to say, ``You yourselves and your fantastic high
canoes made, it is evident, of many trees, are the wonder!''
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