| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The $30,000 Bequest and Other Stories by Mark Twain: somewhere there is release and forgetfulness, somewhere there
is a grave and peace; be patient, it will not be long."
They lived yet two years, in mental night, always brooding,
steeped in vague regrets and melancholy dreams, never speaking;
then release came to both on the same day.
Toward the end the darkness lifted from Sally's ruined mind
for a moment, and he said:
"Vast wealth, acquired by sudden and unwholesome means, is a snare.
It did us no good, transient were its feverish pleasures;
yet for its sake we threw away our sweet and simple and happy life--
let others take warning by us."
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Twice Told Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne: until she paused before the balcony, and flourished a huge key
above her head. Her wrinkled visage actually gleamed with
triumph, as if the soul within her were a festal lamp.
"What means this blaze of light? What does old Esther's joy
portend?" whispered a spectator. "It is frightful to see her
gliding about the chambers, and rejoicing there without a soul to
bear her company."
"It is as if she were making merry in a tomb," said another.
"Pshaw! It is no such mystery," observed an old man, after some
brief exercise of memory. "Mistress Dudley is keeping jubilee for
the King of England's birthday."
Twice Told Tales |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell: refinement, many of excellent families. In addition to the
Carpetbag gentry, substantial people from the North were moving
into Atlanta, attracted by the never ceasing business activity of
the town in this period of rebuilding and expansion. Yankee
families of wealth sent young sons to the South to pioneer on the
new frontier, and Yankee officers after their discharge took up
permanent residence in the town they had fought so hard to capture.
At first, strangers in a strange town, they were glad to accept
invitations to the lavish entertainments of the wealthy and
hospitable Mrs. Butler, but they soon drifted out of her set. They
were good people and they needed only a short acquaintance with
Gone With the Wind |
