| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from A Journal of the Plague Year by Daniel Defoe: themselves, foolhardy and obstinate, while they were well. Where
they could get employment they pushed into any kind of business, the
most dangerous and the most liable to infection; and if they were
spoken to, their answer would be, 'I must trust to God for that; if I am
taken, then I am provided for, and there is an end of me', and the like.
Or thus, 'Why, what must I do? I can't starve. I had as good have the
plague as perish for want. I have no work; what could I do? I must do
this or beg.' Suppose it was burying the dead, or attending the sick, or
watching infected houses, which were all terrible hazards; but their
tale was generally the same. It is true, necessity was a very justifiable,
warrantable plea, and nothing could be better; but their way of talk
A Journal of the Plague Year |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Cousin Pons by Honore de Balzac: In time Schmucke understood; not just at once, for he was too much of
a Teuton to possess that gift of swift perception in which the French
rejoice; Schmucke understood and loved poor Pons the better. Nothing
so fortifies a friendship as a belief on the part of one friend that
he is superior to the other. An angel could not have found a word to
say to Schmucke rubbing his hands over the discovery of the hold that
gluttony had gained over Pons. Indeed, the good German adorned their
breakfast-table next morning with delicacies of which he went in
search himself; and every day he was careful to provide something new
for his friend, for they always breakfasted together at home.
If any one imagines that the pair could not escape ridicule in Paris,
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Love and Friendship by Jane Austen: Miss Jane--. Although I have been acquainted with this charming
Woman above fifteen Years, yet I never before observed how lovely
she is. She is now about 35, and in spite of sickness, sorrow
and Time is more blooming than I ever saw a Girl of 17. I was
delighted with her, the moment she entered the house, and she
appeared equally pleased with me, attaching herself to me during
the remainder of the day. There is something so sweet, so mild in
her Countenance, that she seems more than Mortal. Her
Conversation is as bewitching as her appearance; I could not help
telling her how much she engaged my admiration--. "Oh! Miss
Jane (said I)--and stopped from an inability at the moment of
Love and Friendship |
