| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from A Straight Deal by Owen Wister: had suffered no invasion of their island. They had not the stimulus of
the knowledge that the frontier of their country had been violated, their
homes broken up, their families enslaved, or worse. And then he added: 'I
have sometimes wondered in my own mind, though I have hardly dared
confess the sentiment, whether the gallant troops of our Allies would
have fought with equal spirit and so long a time as they did, had they
been engaged in the Highlands of Scotland or on the marches of the Welsh
border.' Why express that wonder? Is there not here an instance of that
needless overlooking of the feelings of others, by which, in times past,
you have chilled those others? Look out for that."
And should an American say to me:
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Walden by Henry David Thoreau: mountain, its bottom far above the surface of other lakes, and, as
the sun arose, I saw it throwing off its nightly clothing of mist,
and here and there, by degrees, its soft ripples or its smooth
reflecting surface was revealed, while the mists, like ghosts, were
stealthily withdrawing in every direction into the woods, as at the
breaking up of some nocturnal conventicle. The very dew seemed to
hang upon the trees later into the day than usual, as on the sides
of mountains.
This small lake was of most value as a neighbor in the intervals
of a gentle rain-storm in August, when, both air and water being
perfectly still, but the sky overcast, mid-afternoon had all the
Walden |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Allan Quatermain by H. Rider Haggard: Sorais, only to find that he might as well try to woo a mountain
side. With a bitter jest or two about his fickleness, that door
was closed on him for ever. So Nasta bethought himself of the
thirty thousand wild swordsmen who would pour down at his bidding
through the northern mountain passes, and no doubt vowed to adorn
the gates of Milosis with our heads.
But first he determined, as I learned, to make one more attempt
and to demand the hand of Nyleptha in the open Court after the
formal annual ceremony of the signing of the laws that had been
proclaimed by the Queens during the year.
Of this astounding fact Nyleptha heard with simulated nonchalance,
Allan Quatermain |
