| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Master of the World by Jules Verne: "No; and though there is every reason to believe that he has been,
and still continues, beneath the waters of Lake Kirdall, it has been
impossible to find any trace of him anywhere around there. One would
almost fancy he had the power of making himself invisible, this
Proteus of a mechanic!"
"It seems likely," said I, "that he will never be seen until he
wishes to be."
"True, Strock. And to my mind there is only one way of dealing with
him, and that is to offer him such an enormous price that he cannot
refuse to sell his invention."
Mr. Ward was right. Indeed, the government had already made the
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Black Dwarf by Walter Scott: his left. Some gentlemen of consideration, with their sons,
brothers, and nephews, were seated at the upper end of the table,
and among these Mr. Ratcliffe had his place. Beneath the salt-
cellar (a massive piece of plate which occupied the midst of the
table) sate the SINE NOMINE TURBA, men whose vanity was gratified
by holding even this subordinate space at the social board, while
the distinction observed in ranking them was a salve to the pride
of their superiors. That the lower house was not very select
must be admitted, since Willie of Westburnflat was one of the
party. The unabashed audacity of this fellow, in daring to
present himself in the house of a gentleman, to whom he had just
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas: "Ah," said Monte Cristo "I did not expect that the affair
would be so promptly concluded."
"Oh, things take their course without our assistance. While
we are forgetting them, they are falling into their
appointed order; and when, again, our attention is directed
to them, we are surprised at the progress they have made
towards the proposed end. My father and M. Danglars served
together in Spain, my father in the army and M. Danglars in
the commissariat department. It was there that my father,
ruined by the revolution, and M. Danglars, who never had
possessed any patrimony, both laid the foundations of their
The Count of Monte Cristo |
