| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Mansfield Park by Jane Austen: or he will be expecting a well-looking man."
Sir Thomas did not quite understand this, and looked
with some surprise at the speaker.
"If I must say what I think," continued Mr. Rushworth, "in my
opinion it is very disagreeable to be always rehearsing.
It is having too much of a good thing. I am not so fond
of acting as I was at first. I think we are a great deal
better employed, sitting comfortably here among ourselves,
and doing nothing."
Sir Thomas looked again, and then replied with an approving
smile, "I am happy to find our sentiments on this subject
Mansfield Park |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Tales of the Klondyke by Jack London: dust heavy on his soul. Had he not inadvertently fallen asleep
with his mind in such condition, the somnambulic demon would not
have been invoked, nor would Jim Cardegee have gone mining next
day with a dish-pan.
The fire fought a losing battle, and at last died away, while the
frost penetrated the mossy chinks between the logs and chilled the
inner atmosphere. The dogs outside ceased their howling, and,
curled up in the snow, dreamed of salmon-stocked heavens where
dog-drivers and kindred task-masters were not. Within, the sailor
lay like a log, while his host tossed restlessly about, the victim
of strange fantasies. As midnight drew near he suddenly threw off
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Across The Plains by Robert Louis Stevenson: innocent, cheerful, kindly like a child, constant to toil, brave to
drown, for others; in the slums of cities, moving among indifferent
millions to mechanical employments, without hope of change in the
future, with scarce a pleasure in the present, and yet true to his
virtues, honest up to his lights, kind to his neighbours, tempted
perhaps in vain by the bright gin-palace, perhaps long-suffering
with the drunken wife that ruins him; in India (a woman this time)
kneeling with broken cries and streaming tears, as she drowns her
child in the sacred river; in the brothel, the discard of society,
living mainly on strong drink, fed with affronts, a fool, a thief,
the comrade of thieves, and even here keeping the point of honour
|
