| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe: fight with them and are taken in battle.
It was after this some considerable time, that being upon the top
of the hill at the east side of the island, from whence, as I have
said, I had, in a clear day, discovered the main or continent of
America, Friday, the weather being very serene, looks very
earnestly towards the mainland, and, in a kind of surprise, falls a
jumping and dancing, and calls out to me, for I was at some
distance from him. I asked him what was the matter. "Oh, joy!"
says he; "Oh, glad! there see my country, there my nation!" I
observed an extraordinary sense of pleasure appeared in his face,
and his eyes sparkled, and his countenance discovered a strange
Robinson Crusoe |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from A Prince of Bohemia by Honore de Balzac: head simply to rid himself of her. As a result he was stupefied with
astonishment for the first and probably the only time in his life.
" 'Dear,' she said, and there was a ring in her voice that betrayed
the great agitation which shook her whole being, 'it is well. All this
shall be done, or I will die.'
"She let fall a few happy tears on his hand as she kissed it.
" 'You have told me what I must do to be your mistress still,' she
added; 'I am glad.'
" 'And then' (La Palferine told us) 'she went out with a little
coquettish gesture like a woman that has had her way. As she stood in
my garrett doorway, tall and proud, she seemed to reach the stature of
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Europeans by Henry James: the offer being the result of a domestic colloquy, diffused through
the ensuing twenty-four hours, in the course of which the two
foreign visitors were discussed and analyzed with a great deal
of earnestness and subtlety. The discussion went forward,
as I say, in the family circle; but that circle on the evening
following Madame M; auunster's return to town, as on many
other occasions, included Robert Acton and his pretty sister.
If you had been present, it would probably not have seemed
to you that the advent of these brilliant strangers was treated
as an exhilarating occurrence, a pleasure the more in this
tranquil household, a prospective source of entertainment.
|
