| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne: world;--which is March 9, 1759,--that my dear, dear Jenny, observing I
looked a little grave, as she stood cheapening a silk of five-and-twenty
shillings a yard,--told the mercer, she was sorry she had given him so much
trouble;--and immediately went and bought herself a yard-wide stuff of ten-
pence a yard.--'Tis the duplication of one and the same greatness of soul;
only what lessened the honour of it, somewhat, in my mother's case, was,
that she could not heroine it into so violent and hazardous an extreme, as
one in her situation might have wished, because the old midwife had really
some little claim to be depended upon,--as much, at least, as success could
give her; having, in the course of her practice of near twenty years in the
parish, brought every mother's son of them into the world without any one
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis: Maybe when we all get to rowing it's just as much my fault as it is theirs.
Oughtn't to get grouchy like I do. But--Wish I'd been a pioneer, same as my
grand-dad. But then, wouldn't have a house like this. I--Oh, gosh, I DON'T
KNOW!"
He thought moodily of Paul Riesling, of their youth together, of the girls
they had known.
When Babbitt had graduated from the State University, twenty-four years ago,
he had intended to be a lawyer. He had been a ponderous debater in college; he
felt that he was an orator; he saw himself becoming governor of the state.
While he read law he worked as a real-estate salesman. He saved money, lived
in a boarding-house, supped on poached egg on hash. The lively Paul Riesling
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Beauty and The Beast by Bayard Taylor: low, firm voice--
"It is true, father, you are master here. It is easy to rule over
those poor, submissive slaves. But you are not master over
yourself; you are lashed and trampled upon by evil passions, and as
much a slave as any of these. Be not weak, my father, but strong!"
An expression of bewilderment came into his face. No such words
had ever before been addressed to him, and he knew not how to reply
to them. The Princess Helena followed up the effect--she was not
sure that it was an advantage--by an appeal to the simple, childish
nature which she believed to exist under his ferocious exterior.
For a minute it seemed as if she were about to re-establish her
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