| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy: He was their nodal point, their focus, their expression in a
single term. For the rashness of those parents he had groaned,
for their ill assortment he had quaked, and for the misfortunes
of these he had died.
When the house was silent, and they could do nothing but await
the coroner's inquest, a subdued, large, low voice spread into
the air of the room from behind the heavy walls at the back.
"What is it?" said Sue, her spasmodic breathing suspended.
"The organ of the college chapel. The organist practising I suppose.
It's the anthem from the seventy-third Psalm; 'Truly God is loving
unto Israel.'"
Jude the Obscure |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave by Frederick Douglass: situation--without home or friends--without money
or credit--wanting shelter, and no one to give it--
wanting bread, and no money to buy it,--and at the
same time let him feel that he is pursued by merci-
less men-hunters, and in total darkness as to what
to do, where to go, or where to stay,--perfectly help-
less both as to the means of defence and means of
escape,--in the midst of plenty, yet suffering the ter-
rible gnawings of hunger,--in the midst of houses,
yet having no home,--among fellow-men, yet feeling
as if in the midst of wild beasts, whose greediness
The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Lily of the Valley by Honore de Balzac: Listomere, was a Grandlieu. Her manners were as cordial as those of
Monsieur de Mortsauf the day he saw me for the first time; the haughty
glance with which these sovereigns of the earth make you measure the
distance that lies between you and them disappeared. I knew almost
nothing of my family. The duchess told me that my great-uncle, an old
abbe whose very name I did not know, was to be member of the privy
council, that my brother was already promoted, and also that by a
provision of the Charter, of which I had not yet heard, my father
became once more Marquis de Vandenesse.
"I am but one thing, the serf of Clochegourde," I said in a low voice
to the countess.
The Lily of the Valley |
