| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Professor by Charlotte Bronte: she retired from the estrade, taking her seat quietly at a little
distance, and occupying herself with netting a purse. I
proceeded to give my lesson; it was a "Composition," i.e., I
dictated certain general questions, of which the pupils were to
compose the answers from memory, access to books being forbidden.
While Mdlle. Eulalie, Hortense, Caroline, &c., were pondering
over the string of rather abstruse grammatical interrogatories I
had propounded, I was at liberty to employ the vacant half hour
in further observing the directress herself. The green silk
purse was progressing fast in her hands; her eyes were bent upon
it; her attitude, as she sat netting within two yards of me, was
The Professor |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Large Catechism by Dr. Martin Luther: parishes decay and become desolate, and pastors and preachers to suffer
distress and hunger a plenty, just as it becomes crazy Germans to do.
For we Germans have such disgraceful people, and must endure them.
But for myself I say this: I am also a doctor and preacher, yea, as
learned and experienced as all those may be who have such presumption
and security; yet I do as a child who is being taught the Catechism,
and every morning, and whenever I have time, I read and say, word for
word, the Ten Commandments, the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, the Psalms,
etc. And I must still read and study daily, and yet I cannot master it
as I wish, but must remain a child and pupil of the Catechism, and am
glad so to remain. And yet these delicate, fastidious fellows would
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Emma McChesney & Co. by Edna Ferber: from the cards which had preceded them, had difficulty in
repressing a frown of annoyance. T. A. Buck, during his
college-days, and for a lamentably long time after, had been
known as "Beau" Buck, because of his faultless clothes and his
charming manner. His eyes had something to do with it, too, no
doubt. He had lived down the title by sheer force of business
ability. No one thought of using the nickname now, though the
clothes, the manner, and the eyes were the same. At the entrance
of the three women, he had been engrossed in the difficult task
of selling a fall line to Mannie Nussbaum, of Portland, Oregon.
Mannie was what is known as a temperamental buyer. He couldn't
Emma McChesney & Co. |
