| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy: of his marshals. He gazed silently at the hills which seemed to rise
out of the sea of mist and on which the Russian troops were moving
in the distance, and he listened to the sounds of firing in the
valley. Not a single muscle of his face- which in those days was still
thin- moved. His gleaming eyes were fixed intently on one spot. His
predictions were being justified. Part of the Russian force had
already descended into the valley toward the ponds and lakes and
part were leaving these Pratzen Heights which he intended to attack
and regarded as the key to the position. He saw over the mist that
in a hollow between two hills near the village of Pratzen, the Russian
columns, their bayonets glittering, were moving continuously in one
 War and Peace |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from King Henry VI by William Shakespeare: A phoenix that shall make all France afeard.
CHARLES.
So we be rid of them, do with 'em what thou wilt.
And now to Paris, in this conquering vein:
All will be ours, now bloody Talbot's slain.
[Exeunt.]
ACT FIFTH
SCENE I. London. The palace.
[Sennet. Enter King, Gloucester, and Exeter.]
KING.
Have you perused the letters from the pope,
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Art of Writing by Robert Louis Stevenson: literary reason for its use. It will be seen that I
succeeded amply; and I am bound to say I think the passage
exceptional in Shakespeare - exceptional, indeed, in
literature; but it was not I who chose it.
'The BaRge she sat iN, like a BURNished throNe
BURNT oN the water: the POOP was BeateN gold,
PURPle the sails and so PUR* Fumed that * per
The wiNds were love-sick with them.' (7)
It may be asked why I have put the F of 'perfumed' in
capitals; and I reply, because this change from P to F is the
completion of that from B to P, already so adroitly carried
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