| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain: ALL day we swung along down the river, and had the stream almost
wholly to ourselves. Formerly, at such a stage of the water,
we should have passed acres of lumber rafts, and dozens of big
coal barges; also occasional little trading-scows, peddling
along from farm to farm, with the peddler's family on board;
possibly, a random scow, bearing a humble Hamlet and Co.
on an itinerant dramatic trip. But these were all absent.
Far along in the day, we saw one steamboat; just one, and no more.
She was lying at rest in the shade, within the wooded mouth
of the Obion River. The spy-glass revealed the fact that she
was named for me--or HE was named for me, whichever you prefer.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Complete Angler by Izaak Walton: the philosopher's stone, yet is not attainable by common capacities, or
else lies locked up in the brain or breast of some chemical man, that,
like the Rosicrucians, will not yet reveal it. But let me nevertheless tell
you, that camphire, put with moss into your worm-bag with your
worms, makes them, if many anglers be not very much mistaken, a
tempting bait, and the angler more fortunate. But I stepped by chance
into this discourse of oils, and fishes smelling; and though there might
be more said, both of it and of baits for Roach and Dace and other
float-fish, vet I will for bear it at this time, and tell you, in the next
place, how you are to prepare your tackling: concerning which, I will,
for sport sake, give you an old rhyme out of an old fish book; which
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Father Goriot by Honore de Balzac: "Oh! monsieur," cried Victorine, clasping her hands as she spoke,
"why do you want to kill M. Eugene?"
Vautrin stepped back a pace or two, and gazed at Victorine.
"Oh! this is something fresh!" he exclaimed in a bantering tone,
that brought the color into the poor girl's face. "That young
fellow yonder is very nice, isn't he?" he went on. "You have
given me a notion, my pretty child; I will make you both happy."
Mme. Couture laid her hand on the arm of her ward, and drew the
girl away, as she said in her ear:
"Why, Victorine, I cannot imagine what has come over you this
morning."
Father Goriot |
