| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen: CHAPTER 7
Half a minute conducted them through the pump-yard
to the archway, opposite Union Passage; but here they
were stopped. Everybody acquainted with Bath may remember
the difficulties of crossing Cheap Street at this point;
it is indeed a street of so impertinent a nature,
so unfortunately connected with the great London
and Oxford roads, and the principal inn of the city,
that a day never passes in which parties of ladies,
however important their business, whether in quest
of pastry, millinery, or even (as in the present case)
Northanger Abbey |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Woodlanders by Thomas Hardy: had not fastened the window-shutter, so that a streak of light
from the interior of the room might have revealed her vigil to an
observer on the lawn. How all things conspired against her
keeping faith with Grace!
The tapping recommenced, light as from the bill of a little bird;
her illegitimate hope overcame her vow; she went and pulled back
the shutter, determining, however, to shake her head at him and
keep the casement securely closed.
What she saw outside might have struck terror into a heart stouter
than a helpless woman's at midnight. In the centre of the lowest
pane of the window, close to the glass, was a human face, which
The Woodlanders |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad: not so much as flinch, and stretched tragically her bare arms
after us over the sombre and glittering river.
"And then that imbecile crowd down on the deck started their little fun,
and I could see nothing more for smoke.
"The brown current ran swiftly out of the heart of darkness,
bearing us down towards the sea with twice the speed of our
upward progress; and Kurtz's life was running swiftly, too, ebbing,
ebbing out of his heart into the sea of inexorable time.
The manager was very placid, he had no vital anxieties now,
he took us both in with a comprehensive and satisfied glance:
the `affair' had come off as well as could be wished.
Heart of Darkness |
