| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Black Tulip by Alexandre Dumas: Cornelius van Baerle, without being aware of the fact, had a
much more ferocious, fierce, and implacable enemy than the
Grand Pensionary and his brother had among the Orange party,
who were most hostile to the devoted brothers, who had never
been sundered by the least misunderstanding during their
lives, and by their mutual devotion in the face of death
made sure the existence of their brotherly affection beyond
the grave.
At the time when Cornelius van Baerle began to devote
himself to tulip-growing, expending on this hobby his yearly
revenue and the guilders of his father, there was at Dort,
The Black Tulip |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Tono Bungay by H. G. Wells: of England, and honest penny dreadfuls--ripping stuff, stuff
that anticipated Haggard and Stevenson, badly printed and queerly
illustrated, and very very good for us. On our half-holidays we
were allowed the unusual freedom of rambling in twos and threes
wide and far about the land, talking experimentally, dreaming
wildly. There was much in those walks! To this day the
landscape of the Kentish world, with its low broad distances, its
hop gardens and golden stretches of wheat, its oasts and square
church towers, its background of downland and hangers, has for me
a faint sense of adventure added to the pleasure of its beauty.
We smoked on occasion, but nobody put us up to the proper
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte: with which the grass round the tree roots was thickly strewn; then I
employed myself in dividing the ripe from the unripe; I carried them
into the house and put them away in the store-room. Then I repaired
to the library to ascertain whether the fire was lit, for, though
summer, I knew on such a gloomy evening Mr. Rochester would like to
see a cheerful hearth when he came in: yes, the fire had been
kindled some time, and burnt well. I placed his arm-chair by the
chimney-corner: I wheeled the table near it: I let down the
curtain, and had the candles brought in ready for lighting. More
restless than ever, when I had completed these arrangements I could
not sit still, nor even remain in the house: a little time-piece in
Jane Eyre |
