| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Life in the Iron-Mills by Rebecca Davis: Yet it was her almost nightly walk to take this man his supper,
though at every square she sat down to rest, and she knew she
should receive small word of thanks.
Perhaps, if she had possessed an artist's eye, the picturesque
oddity of the scene might have made her step stagger less, and
the path seem shorter; but to her the mills were only "summat
deilish to look at by night."
The road leading to the mills had been quarried from the solid
rock, which rose abrupt and bare on one side of the cinder-
covered road, while the river, sluggish and black, crept past on
the other. The mills for rolling iron are simply immense tent-
Life in the Iron-Mills |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Youth by Joseph Conrad: side, took our cargo, and then we went into dry dock to
get our copper stripped. No wonder she leaked. The
poor thing, strained beyond endurance by the gale, had,
as if in disgust, spat out all the oakum of her lower
seams. She was recalked, new coppered, and made as
tight as a bottle. We went back to the hulk and re-
shipped our cargo.
"Then on a fine moonlight night, all the rats left the
ship.
"We had been infested with them. They had destroyed
our sails, consumed more stores than the crew, affably
Youth |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Touchstone by Edith Wharton: there is no palate so fastidious as that of self-distrust. To a
youth of Glennard's aspirations the encouragement of a clever
woman stood for the symbol of all success. Later, when he had
begun to feel his way, to gain a foothold, he would not need such
support; but it served to carry him lightly and easily over what
is often a period of insecurity and discouragement.
It would be unjust, however, to represent his interest in Mrs.
Aubyn as a matter of calculation. It was as instinctive as love,
and it missed being love by just such a hair-breadth deflection
from the line of beauty as had determined the curve of Mrs.
Aubyn's lips. When they met she had just published her first
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