| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Middlemarch by George Eliot: to help out the inadequacy of words--"what I am thinking of is--
what it must be for a wife when she's never sure of her husband,
when he hasn't got a principle in him to make him more afraid of doing
the wrong thing by others than of getting his own toes pinched.
That's the long and the short of it, Mary. Young folks may get fond
of each other before they know what life is, and they may think
it all holiday if they can only get together; but it soon turns
into working day, my dear. However, you have more sense than most,
and you haven't been kept in cotton-wool: there may be no occasion
for me to say this, but a father trembles for his daughter, and you are
all by yourself here."
Middlemarch |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from In a German Pension by Katherine Mansfield: I have heard that he discussed 'free love' with Bertha as she was sweeping
his room. I am not accustomed to such company. I had suspected him for a
long time."
"Young blood," answered the Herr Rat genially. "I have had several
disputes with him--you have heard them--is it not so?" turning to me.
"A great many," I said, smiling.
"Doubtless you too consider me behind the times. I make no secret of my
age; I am sixty-nine; but you must have surely observed how impossible it
was for him to speak at all when I raised my voice."
I replied with the utmost conviction, and, catching Frau Fischer's eye,
suddenly realised I had better go back to the house and write some letters.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Letters from England by Elizabeth Davis Bancroft: weighed fifteen pounds. Lady Raffles furnished him the materials
for the drawing. I dined in company with her not long ago, and
regret now that I did not make her tell me about the wonders of that
region. At the same dinner you may meet so many people, each having
their peculiar gift, that one cannot avail oneself of the
opportunity of extracting from each what is precious. I always wish
I could sit by everybody at the same time, and I could often employ
a dozen heads, if I had them, instead of my poor, miserable one.
From Sir William Hooker I learned as much about the VEGETABLE world,
as Mr. Bancroft did from the Dean of Ely on ARCHITECTURE, when he
expounded to him the cathedral of Ely; pointing out the successive
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