| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Jungle by Upton Sinclair: make himself useful, and rise and become a skilled man; but he would soon
find out his error--for nobody rose in Packingtown by doing good work.
You could lay that down for a rule--if you met a man who was rising in
Packingtown, you met a knave. That man who had been sent to Jurgis'
father by the boss, he would rise; the man who told tales and spied upon
his fellows would rise; but the man who minded his own business and did his
work--why, they would "speed him up" till they had worn him out, and then
they would throw him into the gutter.
Jurgis went home with his head buzzing. Yet he could not bring himself
to believe such things--no, it could not be so. Tamoszius was simply
another of the grumblers. He was a man who spent all his time fiddling;
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Almayer's Folly by Joseph Conrad: "The place behind the curtain is empty," gasped Taminah, catching
her breath between the words. "There are no women in your house
any more, Tuan. I saw the old Mem go away before I tried to wake
you. I did not want your women, I wanted you."
"Old Mem!" repeated Almayer. "Do you mean my wife?"
She nodded her head.
"But of my daughter you are not afraid?" said Almayer.
"Have you not heard me?" she exclaimed. "Have I not spoken for a
long time when you lay there with eyes half open? She is gone
too."
"I was asleep. Can you not tell when a man is sleeping and when
Almayer's Folly |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Don Quixote by Miquel de Cervantes: course of this great history, he only talked nonsense when he
touched on chivalry, and in discussing all other subjects showed
that he had a clear and unbiassed understanding; so that at every turn
his acts gave the lie to his intellect, and his intellect to his acts;
but in the case of these second counsels that he gave Sancho he showed
himself to have a lively turn of humour, and displayed conspicuously
his wisdom, and also his folly.
Sancho listened to him with the deepest attention, and endeavoured
to fix his counsels in his memory, like one who meant to follow them
and by their means bring the full promise of his government to a happy
issue. Don Quixote, then, went on to say:
Don Quixote |
