| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Amy Foster by Joseph Conrad: that enchantment, from that transport, by a
fear resembling the unaccountable terror of a
brute. . . ."
With the sun hanging low on its western limit,
the expanse of the grass-lands framed in the coun-
ter-scarps of the rising ground took on a gorgeous
and sombre aspect. A sense of penetrating sad-
ness, like that inspired by a grave strain of music,
disengaged itself from the silence of the fields.
The men we met walked past slow, unsmiling, with
downcast eyes, as if the melancholy of an over-bur-
Amy Foster |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas: that the soldier on duty--a zealous Catholic, no doubt--shook off
the charm, for through the door he called: "Hold your tongue,
madame! Your song is as dismal as a 'De profundis'; and if
besides the pleasure of being in garrison here, we must hear such
things as these, no mortal can hold out."
"Silence!" then exclaimed another stern voice which Milady
recognized as that of Felton. "What are you meddling with,
stupid? Did anybody order you to prevent that woman from
singing? No. You were told to guard her--to fire at her if she
attempted to fly. Guard her! If she flies, kill her; but don't
exceed your orders."
The Three Musketeers |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy: well for water.
"Look sharp, my girl!" the old man shouted after her,
good-humoredly, and he went up to Levin. "Well, sir, are you
going to Nikolay Ivanovitch Sviazhsky? His honor comes to us
too," he began, chatting, leaning his elbows on the railing of
the steps. In the middle of the old man's account of his
acquaintance with Sviazhsky, the gates creaked again, and
laborers came into the yard from the fields, with wooden ploughs
and harrows. The horses harnessed to the ploughs and harrows were
sleek and fat. The laborers were obviously of the household: two
were young men in cotton shirts and caps, the two others were
Anna Karenina |
