| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Turn of the Screw by Henry James: excitement that might well, had it continued too long,
have turned to something like madness. What saved me,
as I now see, was that it turned to something else altogether.
It didn't last as suspense--it was superseded by horrible proofs.
Proofs, I say, yes--from the moment I really took hold.
This moment dated from an afternoon hour that I happened
to spend in the grounds with the younger of my pupils alone.
We had left Miles indoors, on the red cushion of a deep
window seat; he had wished to finish a book, and I had been
glad to encourage a purpose so laudable in a young man whose
only defect was an occasional excess of the restless.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Koran: therein; though none gainsay our signs except the misbelievers.
Thou couldst not recite before this any book, nor write it with
thy right hand, for in that case those who deem it vain would have
doubted. Nay, but it is evident signs in the breasts of those who
are endued with knowledge, and none but the unjust would gainsay our
signs!
They say, 'Unless there be sent down upon him signs from his Lord-;'
say, 'Verily, signs are with God, and, verily, I am an obvious
warner!'
Is it not enough for them that we have sent down to thee the Book
which thou dost recite to them? verily, in that is a mercy and a
The Koran |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Wrong Box by Stevenson & Osbourne: open mind, it will appear (upon the whole) less strange that
Joseph Finsbury should have been led to entertain ideas of
escape. His lot (I think we may say) was not a happy one. My
friend, Mr Morris, with whom I travel up twice or thrice a week
from Snaresbrook Park, is certainly a gentleman whom I esteem;
but he was scarce a model nephew. As for John, he is of course an
excellent fellow; but if he was the only link that bound one to a
home, I think the most of us would vote for foreign travel. In
the case of Joseph, John (if he were a link at all) was not the
only one; endearing bonds had long enchained the old gentleman to
Bloomsbury; and by these expressions I do not in the least refer
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