| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Whirligigs by O. Henry: He wore nose-glasses and evening clothes, even if his shoes
had been tans before they met the patent-leather-polish
bottle.
"Mr. Sergeant," said he, out of his throat, like Actor
Irving, "I would like to protest against this arrest. The
company of actors who are performing in a little play
that I have written, in company with a friend and myself
were having a little supper. We became deeply interested
in the discussion as to which one of the cast is responsible
for a scene in the sketch that lately has fallen so flat that
the piece is about to become a failure. We may have
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Fisherman's Luck by Henry van Dyke: that are not," may provide matter for good talk, if only the right
people are engaged in the enterprise. I know a man who can make a
description of the weather as entertaining as a tune on the violin;
and even on the threadbare theme of the waywardness of domestic
servants, I have heard a discreet woman play the most diverting and
instructive variations.
No, the quality of talkability does not mark a distinction among
things; it denotes a difference among people. It is not an
attribute unequally distributed among material objects and abstract
ideas. It is a virtue which belongs to the mind and moral character
of certain persons. It is a reciprocal human quality; active as
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Heroes by Charles Kingsley: 'But you know not,' said Medeia, 'what he must do who would
win the fleece. He must tame the two brazen-footed bulls,
who breathe devouring flame; and with them he must plough ere
nightfall four acres in the field of Ares; and he must sow
them with serpents' teeth, of which each tooth springs up
into an armed man. Then he must fight with all those
warriors; and little will it profit him to conquer them, for
the fleece is guarded by a serpent, more huge than any
mountain pine; and over his body you must step if you would
reach the golden fleece.'
Then Jason laughed bitterly. 'Unjustly is that fleece kept
|
