| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Story of an African Farm by Olive Schreiner: till the boy came to wake me to inspan, and then we drove on again all
night; so it went, so it went. I think sometimes when I walked by my oxen
I called to them in my sleep, for I know I thought of nothing; I was like
an animal. My body was strong and well to work, but my brain was dead. If
you have not felt it, Lyndall, you cannot understand it. You may work, and
work, and work, till you are only a body, not a soul. Now, when I see one
of those evil-looking men that come from Europe--navvies, with the beast-
like, sunken face, different from any Kaffer's--I know what brought that
look into their eyes; and if I have only one inch of tobacco I give them
half. It is work, grinding, mechanical work, that they or their ancestors
have done, that has made them into beasts. You may work a man's body so
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Georgics by Virgil: And such slight cares to learn not weary thee.
And this among the first: thy threshing-floor
With ponderous roller must be levelled smooth,
And wrought by hand, and fixed with binding chalk,
Lest weeds arise, or dust a passage win
Splitting the surface, then a thousand plagues
Make sport of it: oft builds the tiny mouse
Her home, and plants her granary, underground,
Or burrow for their bed the purblind moles,
Or toad is found in hollows, and all the swarm
Of earth's unsightly creatures; or a huge
Georgics |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Options by O. Henry: have reached a monkey ten yards away with the papers. We wondered
what kept it from being annexed to Kansas; but we soon found out that
it was Major Bing.
"Major Bing was the ointment around the fly. He had the cochineal,
sarsaparilla, log-wood, annatto, hemp, and all other dye-woods and
pure food adulteration concessions cornered. He had five-sixths of
the Boca de Thingama jiggers working for him on shares. It was a
beautiful graft. We used to brag about Morgan and E. H. and others
of our wisest when I was in the provinces--but now no more. That
peninsula has got our little country turned into a submarine without
even the observation tower showing.
Options |
