| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from House of Mirth by Edith Wharton: leaving, the first step toward her reinstatement in Mrs. Bry's
good graces. An affable advance--a vague murmur that they must
see more of each other--an allusive glance to a near future that
was felt to include the Duchess as well as the Sabrina--how
easily it was all done, if one possessed the knack of doing it!
She wondered at herself, as she had so often wondered, that,
possessing the knack, she did not more consistently exercise it.
But sometimes she was forgetful--and sometimes, could it be that
she was proud? Today, at any rate, she had been vaguely conscious
of a reason for sinking her pride, had in fact even sunk it to
the point of suggesting to Lord Hubert Dacey, whom she ran across
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Christ in Flanders by Honore de Balzac: languid had grown the soul that was melted within me. The west wind
had slackened the springs of my intelligence. A cold gray light poured
down from the heavens, and the murky clouds that passed overhead gave
a boding look to the land; all these things, together with the
immensity of the sea, said to me, "Die to-day or die to-morrow, still
must we not die?" And then--I wandered on, musing on the doubtful
future, on my blighted hopes. Gnawed by these gloomy thoughts, I
turned mechanically into the convent church, with the gray towers that
loomed like ghosts though the sea mists. I looked round with no
kindling of the imagination at the forest of columns, at the slender
arches set aloft upon the leafy capitals, a delicate labyrinth of
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz by L. Frank Baum: rolling over and over, amid shouts of delight from the spectators, who
had been horrified by the ungracious act he had been guilty of.
When Jim came to himself and sat upon his haunches he found the
Cowardly Lion crouched on one side of him and the Hungry Tiger on the
other, and their eyes were glowing like balls of fire.
"I beg your pardon, I'm sure," said Jim, meekly. "I was wrong to kick
the Sawhorse, and I am sorry I became angry at him. He has won the
race, and won it fairly; but what can a horse of flesh do against a
tireless beast of wood?"
Hearing this apology the Tiger and the Lion stopped lashing their
tails and retreated with dignified steps to the side of the Princess.
Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz |
