| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Moby Dick by Herman Melville: it swept over his head, and at the next jerk, the spar was that way
trapped, and all was safe. The schooner was run into the wind, and
while the hands were clearing away the stern boat, Queequeg, stripped
to the waist, darted from the side with a long living arc of a leap.
For three minutes or more he was seen swimming like a dog, throwing
his long arms straight out before him, and by turns revealing his
brawny shoulders through the freezing foam. I looked at the grand
and glorious fellow, but saw no one to be saved. The greenhorn had
gone down. Shooting himself perpendicularly from the water,
Queequeg, now took an instant's glance around him, and seeming to see
just how matters were, dived down and disappeared. A few minutes
Moby Dick |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Plain Tales from the Hills by Rudyard Kipling: friends. He was popular enough on board ship, made many
acquaintances and a moderately large liquor bill, and sent off huge
letters to Agnes Laiter at each port. Then he fell to work on this
plantation, somewhere between Darjiling and Kangra, and, though the
salary and the horse and the work were not quite all he had
fancied, he succeeded fairly well, and gave himself much
unnecessary credit for his perseverance.
In the course of time, as he settled more into collar, and his work
grew fixed before him, the face of Agnes Laiter went out of his
mind and only came when he was at leisure, which was not often. He
would forget all about her for a fortnight, and remember her with a
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Essays of Francis Bacon by Francis Bacon: Iterations are commonly loss of time. But there
is no such gain of time, as to iterate often the state
of the question; for it chaseth away many a frivo-
lous speech, as it is coming forth. Long and curious
speeches, are as fit for dispatch, as a robe or mantle,
with a long train, is for race. Prefaces and pas-
sages, and excusations, and other speeches of refer-
ence to the person, are great wastes of time; and
though they seem to proceed of modesty, they are
bravery. Yet beware of being too material, when
there is any impediment or obstruction in men's
Essays of Francis Bacon |
