| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The People That Time Forgot by Edgar Rice Burroughs: far spread, nostrils dilated and eyes wide, watching me as I
edged toward him, taking in the slack of the rope as I advanced.
A dozen times he reared and tried to break away; but always I
spoke soothingly to him and after an hour of effort I succeeded
in reaching his head and stroking his muzzle. Then I gathered
a handful of grass and offered it to him, and always I talked
to him in a quiet and reassuring voice.
I had expected a battle royal; but on the contrary I found his
taming a matter of comparative ease. Though wild, he was
gentle to a degree, and of such remarkable intelligence that
he soon discovered that I had no intention of harming him.
The People That Time Forgot |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Coxon Fund by Henry James: because he's--what do you call it in England?--of humble
extraction?"
"Not a bit. His father was a country school-master and his mother
the widow of a sexton, but that has nothing to do with it. I say
it simply because I know him well."
"But isn't it an awful drawback?"
"Awful--quite awful."
"I mean isn't it positively fatal?"
"Fatal to what? Not to his magnificent vitality."
Again she had a meditative moment. "And is his magnificent
vitality the cause of his vices?"
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Gods of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs: aught than a dead or defeated enemy.
"Haste, Tars Tarkas," I urged, "or we shall both go down
to profitless defeat; I cannot hold them for ever alone."
As he dropped to the ground to force his way into the
tree, the whole howling pack of hideous devils hurled themselves
upon me. To right and left flew my shimmering blade,
now green with the sticky juice of a plant man, now red
with the crimson blood of a great white ape; but always
flying from one opponent to another, hesitating but the barest
fraction of a second to drink the lifeblood in the centre of
some savage heart.
The Gods of Mars |
