| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Glasses by Henry James: doing I too might perhaps not catch it? She at any rate herself
took the alarm. On perceiving her companion's nearness she made,
still averted, another duck of her head and a shuffle of her hands
so precipitate that a little tin steamboat she had been holding
escaped from them and rattled down to the floor with a sharpness
that I hear at this hour. Lord Iffield had already seized her arm;
with a violent jerk he brought her round toward him. Then it was
that there met my eyes a quite distressing sight: this exquisite
creature, blushing, glaring, exposed, with a pair of big black-
rimmed eye-glasses, defacing her by their position, crookedly
astride of her beautiful nose. She made a grab at them with her
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Devil's Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce: of a command.
His right to govern me is clear as day,
My duty manifest to disobey;
And if that fit observance e'er I shut
May I and duty be alike undone.
Israfel Brown
DISSEMBLE, v.i. To put a clean shirt upon the character.
Let us dissemble.
Adam
DISTANCE, n. The only thing that the rich are willing for the poor to
call theirs, and keep.
The Devil's Dictionary |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The People That Time Forgot by Edgar Rice Burroughs: toward me as she tried to explain the meaning of some word or
correct my pronunciation of another quite entirely occupied my
every faculty of perception. The firelight shone upon her
animated features and sparkling eyes; it accentuated the
graceful motions of her gesturing arms and hands; it sparkled
from her white teeth and from her golden ornaments, and
glistened on the smooth firmness of her perfect skin. I am
afraid that often I was more occupied with admiration of this
beautiful animal than with a desire for knowledge; but be that
as it may, I nevertheless learned much that evening, though
part of what I learned had naught to do with any new language.
The People That Time Forgot |
