| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Heritage of the Desert by Zane Grey: rocks and stunted cedars of its summit standing in weird relief.
Suddenly Hare's fugitive glance descried a dark object; he watched
intently as it moved and rose from behind the summit of the ridge to mane
a bold black figure silhouetted against the cold clearness of sky. He
saw it distinctly, realized it was close, and breathed hard as the
wind-swept mane and tail, the lean, wild shape and single plume resolved
themselves into the unmistakable outline of an Indian mustang and rider.
"Look!" he whispered to the girl." See, a mounted Indian, there on the
ridge--there, he's gone--no, I see him agate. But that's another. Look!
there are more." He ceased in breathless suspense and stared fearfully
at a line of mounted Indians moving in single file over the ridge to
The Heritage of the Desert |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from My Aunt Margaret's Mirror by Walter Scott: your curses load his soul.'
"'Tell him,' said Lady Bothwell sternly, 'to ask pardon of that
Being whom he has so greatly offended, not of an erring mortal
like himself. What could my forgiveness avail him?'
"'Much,' answered the old man. 'It will be an earnest of that
which he may then venture to ask from his Creator, lady, and from
yours. Remember, Lady Bothwell, you too have a death-bed to look
forward to; Your soul may--all human souls must--feel the awe of
facing the judgment-seat, with the wounds of an untented
conscience, raw, and rankling--what thought would it be then that
should whisper, "I have given no mercy, how then shall I ask
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Intentions by Oscar Wilde: Hamlet. If Hamlet has something of the definiteness of a work of
art, he has also all the obscurity that belongs to life. There are
as many Hamlets as there are melancholies.
ERNEST. As many Hamlets as there are melancholies?
GILBERT. Yes: and as art springs from personality, so it is only
to personality that it can be revealed, and from the meeting of the
two comes right interpretative criticism.
ERNEST. The critic, then, considered as the interpreter, will give
no less than he receives, and lend as much as he borrows?
GILBERT. He will be always showing us the work of art in some new
relation to our age. He will always be reminding us that great
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