| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Amy Foster by Joseph Conrad: word now and then. They were no longer in his
own language. The fever had left him, taking
with it the heat of life. And with his panting
breast and lustrous eyes he reminded me again of a
wild creature under the net; of a bird caught in a
snare. She had left him. She had left him--sick
--helpless--thirsty. The spear of the hunter had
entered his very soul. 'Why?' he cried in the pen-
etrating and indignant voice of a man calling to a
responsible Maker. A gust of wind and a swish of
rain answered.
Amy Foster |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Bickerstaff-Partridge Papers by Jonathan Swift: every day hawk'd about. My fortune has placed me above the little
regard of scribbling for a few pence, which I neither value or
want: Therefore let no wise men too hastily condemn this essay,
intended for a good design, to cultivate and improve an ancient
art, long in disgrace, by having fallen into mean and unskilful
hands. A little time will determine whether I have deceived
others or myself: and I think it is no very unreasonable request,
that men would please to suspend their judgments till then. I was
once of the opinion with those who despise all predictions from
the stars, till the year 1686, a man of quality shew'd me,
written in his album, That the most learned astronomer, Captain
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Christ in Flanders by Honore de Balzac: that the wise may interpret to suit themselves. To each his own
pasturage, and the task of separating the tares from the wheat.
The boat that served to carry passengers from the Island of Cadzand to
Ostend was upon the point of departure; but before the skipper loosed
the chain that secured the shallop to the little jetty, where people
embarked, he blew a horn several times, to warn late lingerers, this
being his last journey that day. Night was falling. It was scarcely
possible to see the coast of Flanders by the dying fires of the
sunset, or to make out upon the hither shore any forms of belated
passengers hurrying along the wall of the dykes that surrounded the
open country, or among the tall reeds of the marshes. The boat was
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