| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Troll Garden and Selected Stories by Willa Cather: the last row of the gallery, when the air was charged with this
ecstasy of fancy, he himself was the victim of the burning
reflection of his power. They acted upon him in turn; he felt
their fervent and despairing appeal to him; it stirred him as the
spring drives the sap up into an old tree; he, too, burst into
bloom. For the moment he, too, believed again, desired again, he
knew not what, but something.
But it was not in these exalted moments that Caroline had
learned to fear him most. It was in the quiet, tired reserve,
the dullness, even, that kept him company between these outbursts
that she found that exhausting drain upon her sympathies which
The Troll Garden and Selected Stories |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Works of Samuel Johnson by Samuel Johnson: real facts, and certain experience. This is perhaps
one reason, among many, why age delights in
narratives.
But so full is the world of calamity, that every
source of pleasure is polluted, and every retirement
of tranquillity disturbed. When time has supplied
us with events sufficient to employ our thoughts,
it has mingled them with so many disasters, that
we shrink from their remembrance, dread their
intrusion upon our minds, and fly from them as from
enemies that pursue us with torture.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Hellenica by Xenophon: troops with Alcibiades at their head. Helixus and Coeratadas, in
complete ignorance of the plot, hastened to the Agora with the whole
of the garrison, ready to confront the danger; but finding the enemy
in occupation, they had nothing for it but to give themselves up. They
were sent off as prisoners to Athens, where Coeratadas, in the midst
of the crowd and confusion of debarkation at Piraeus, gave his guards
the slip, and made his way in safety to Decelia.
IV
B.C. 407. Pharnabazus and the ambassadors were passing the winter at
Gordium in Phrygia, when they heard of the occurrences at Byzantium.
Continuing their journey to the king's court in the commencement of
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