| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Edition of The Ambassadors by Henry James: of an old story, something he had heard, read, something that, had
he had a hand for drama, he might himself have written, renewing
her courage, renewing her clearness, in splendidly-protected
meditation. Her back, as she sat, was turned to him, but his
impression absolutely required that she should be young and
interesting, and she carried her head moreover, even in the sacred
shade, with a discernible faith in herself, a kind of implied
conviction of consistency, security, impunity. But what had such a
woman come for if she hadn't come to pray? Strether's reading of
such matters was, it must be owned, confused; but he wondered if
her attitude were some congruous fruit of absolution, of
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte: drifts crushed the blowing roses; on hayfield and cornfield lay a
frozen shroud: lanes which last night blushed full of flowers, to-
day were pathless with untrodden snow; and the woods, which twelve
hours since waved leafy and flagrant as groves between the tropics,
now spread, waste, wild, and white as pine-forests in wintry Norway.
My hopes were all dead--struck with a subtle doom, such as, in one
night, fell on all the first-born in the land of Egypt. I looked on
my cherished wishes, yesterday so blooming and glowing; they lay
stark, chill, livid corpses that could never revive. I looked at my
love: that feeling which was my master's--which he had created; it
shivered in my heart, like a suffering child in a cold cradle;
Jane Eyre |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Bickerstaff-Partridge Papers by Jonathan Swift: will be a scandal amongst Protestants for husbands and wives to
part, since there remains still a possibility to perform the
debitus conjugale, by the husband being femme couverte. I submit
it to the judgment of the gentlemen of the long robe, whether
this transformation does not discharge all suits of rapes?
The Pope must undergo a new groping; but the false prophet
Mahomet has contriv'd matters well for his successors; for as the
Grand Signior has now a great many fine women, he will then have
as many fine young gentelmen, at his devotion.
These are surprizing scenes; but I beg leave to affirm, that the
solemn operations of nature are subjects of contemplation, not of
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