| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from My Antonia by Willa Cather: of her suggestion, then began, `Jesus, Lover of my Soul,'
and all the men and women took it up after him. Whenever I
have heard the hymn since, it has made me remember that white
waste and the little group of people; and the bluish air,
full of fine, eddying snow, like long veils flying:
`While the nearer waters roll,
While the tempest still is high.'
Years afterward, when the open-grazing days were over,
and the red grass had been ploughed under and under until it
had almost disappeared from the prairie; when all the fields were
under fence, and the roads no longer ran about like wild things,
My Antonia |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from A Hero of Our Time by M.Y. Lermontov: involuntarily, I ask myself: 'why have I lived --
for what purpose was I born?' . . . A purpose
there must have been, and, surely, mine was an
exalted destiny, because I feel that within my
soul are powers immeasurable. . . But I was
not able to discover that destiny, I allowed myself
to be carried away by the allurements of passions,
inane and ignoble. From their crucible I issued
hard and cold as iron, but gone for ever was the
glow of noble aspirations -- the fairest flower of
life. And, from that time forth, how often have
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from A Legend of Montrose by Walter Scott: your interest in this discovery, my dear Menteith, has no small
reference to your own happiness. You love this new-found lady,--
your affection is returned. In point of birth, no exceptions can
be made; in every other respect, her advantages are equal to
those which you yourself possess--think, however, a moment. Sir
Duncan is a fanatic--Presbyterian, at least--in arms against the
King; he is only with us in the quality of a prisoner, and we
are, I fear, but at the commencement of a long civil war. Is
this a time, think you, Menteith, for you to make proposals for
his heiress? Or what chance is there that he will now listen to
it ?"
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