| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Adieu by Honore de Balzac: workers; and the work went on, the raft increased in length and
breadth and depth. Generals, soldiers, colonel, all put their
shoulders to the wheel; it was a true image of the building of Noah's
ark. The young countess, seated beside her husband, watched the
progress of the work with regret that she could not help it; and yet
she did assist in making knots to secure the cordage.
At last the raft was finished. Forty men launched it on the river, a
dozen others holding the cords which moored it to the shore. But no
sooner had the builders seen their handiwork afloat, than they sprang
from the bank with odious selfishness. The major, fearing the fury of
this first rush, held back the countess and the general, but too late
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Secret Sharer by Joseph Conrad: To run down for it I didn't dare. There was no time.
All at once my strained, yearning stare distinguished
a white object floating within a yard of the ship's side.
White on the black water. A phosphorescent flash passed under it.
What was that thing? . . . I recognized my own floppy hat.
It must have fallen off his head . . . and he didn't bother.
Now I had what I wanted--the saving mark for my eyes.
But I hardly thought of my other self, now gone from the ship,
to be hidden forever from all friendly faces, to be a fugitive
and a vagabond on the earth, with no brand of the curse on his
sane forehead to stay a slaying hand . . . too proud to explain.
The Secret Sharer |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Insidious Dr. Fu-Manchu by Sax Rohmer: He begged me not to open it."
Nayland Smith was studying the speaker's face.
"What reason did he give for so extraordinary a request?" he asked.
Sir Lionel Barton hesitated.
"One," he replied at last, "which amused me--at the time. I must inform
you that Mekara--whose tomb my agent had discovered during my absence
in Tibet, and to enter which I broke my return journey to Alexandria--
was a high priest and first prophet of Amen--under the Pharaoh of the Exodus;
in short, one of the magicians who contested in magic arts with Moses.
I thought the discovery unique, until Professor Rembold furnished me
with some curious particulars respecting the death of M. Page le Roi,
The Insidious Dr. Fu-Manchu |
