| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Twice Told Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne: their limbs in feverish wakefulness, or dreamed of climbing
precipices, and set off to realize their dreams with the earliest
peep of dawn. But Matthew and Hannah, after their calm rest, were
as light as two young deer, and merely stopped to say their
prayers and wash themselves in a cold pool of the Amonoosuck, and
then to taste a morsel of food, ere they turned their faces to
the mountain-side. It was a sweet emblem of conjugal affection,
as they toiled up the difficult ascent, gathering strength from
the mutual aid which they afforded. After several little
accidents, such as a torn robe, a lost shoe, and the entanglement
of Hannah's hair in a bough, they reached the upper verge of the
Twice Told Tales |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Men of Iron by Howard Pyle: against the single red flower-de-luce in the middle of the
on-coming shield. There was a thunderous crash that seemed to
rack every joint, he heard the crackle of splintered wood, he
felt the momentary trembling recoil of the horse beneath him, and
in the next instant had passed by. As he checked the onward rush
of his horse at the far end of the course, he heard faintly in
the dim hollow recess of the helm the loud shout and the clapping
of hands of those who looked on, and found himself gripping with
nervous intensity the butt of a broken spear, his mouth clammy
with excitement, and his heart thumping in his throat.
Then he realized that he had met his opponent, and had borne the
Men of Iron |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Touchstone by Edith Wharton: incapacity to make use of it, she seemed invincibly ignorant of
any of the little artifices whereby women contrive to palliate
their defects and even to turn them into graces. Her dress never
seemed a part of her; all her clothes had an impersonal air, as
though they had belonged to someone else and been borrowed in an
emergency that had somehow become chronic. She was conscious
enough of her deficiencies to try to amend them by rash imitations
of the most approved models; but no woman who does not dress well
intuitively will ever do so by the light of reason, and Mrs.
Aubyn's plagiarisms, to borrow a metaphor of her trade, somehow
never seemed to be incorporated with the text.
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