| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen: were strictly honourable, and my feelings blameless.
Even THEN, however, when fully determined on paying
my addresses to her, I allowed myself most improperly
to put off, from day to day, the moment of doing it,
from an unwillingness to enter into an engagement
while my circumstances were so greatly embarrassed.
I will not reason here--nor will I stop for YOU to expatiate
on the absurdity, and the worse than absurdity, of scrupling
to engage my faith where my honour was already bound.
The event has proved, that I was a cunning fool,
providing with great circumspection for a possible
Sense and Sensibility |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Great God Pan by Arthur Machen: the remembrance of tragedies as hopeless and perplexed as the
labyrinth of Daedalus, and began to talk in an indifferent voice
of the more pleasant incidents and adventures of the season.
"That Mrs. Beaumont," he said, "of whom we were
speaking, is a great success; she has taken London almost by
storm. I met her the other night at Fulham's; she is really a
remarkable woman."
"You have met Mrs. Beaumont?"
"Yes; she had quite a court around her. She would be
called very handsome, I suppose, and yet there is something
about her face which I didn't like. The features are exquisite,
The Great God Pan |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The American by Henry James: rattling woman was certainly not the equal of a sensible man,
preoccupied with an ambitious passion. Madame de Bellegarde
stopped suddenly, and looked at him sharply, shaking her fan.
"I see you don't believe me," she said, "you are too much on your guard.
You will not form an alliance, offensive or defensive?
You are very wrong; I could help you."
Newman answered that he was very grateful and that he would certainly ask
for help; she should see. "But first of all," he said, "I must help myself."
And he went to join Madame de Cintre.
"I have been telling Madame de la Rochefidele that you are
an American," she said, as he came up. "It interests her greatly.
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