| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin: of almost any man I ever met with. He became afterwards a merchant
of great note, and one of our provincial judges. Our friendship
continued without interruption to his death, upward of forty years;
and the club continued almost as long, and was the best school
of philosophy, morality, and politics that then existed in the province;
for our queries, which were read the week preceding their discussion,
put us upon reading with attention upon the several subjects,
that we might speak more to the purpose; and here, too, we acquired
better habits of conversation, every thing being studied in our
rules which might prevent our disgusting each other. From hence
the long continuance of the club, which I shall have frequent
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Little Rivers by Henry van Dyke: narrated the tale of seven trout which he had caught in another
lake, WITH WORMS, on the previous Sunday, they went away for a row,
(with salutations in which politeness but thinly veiled their
pity,) and left me still whipping the water in vain. Nor was the
fortune of the day much better in the stream below. It was a long
and wet wade for three fish too small to keep. I came out on the
shore of the lake, where I had left the row-boat, with empty bag
and a feeling of damp discouragement.
There was still an hour or so of daylight, and a beautiful place to
fish where the stream poured swirling out into the lake. A rise,
and a large one, though rather slow, awakened my hopes. Another
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Oakdale Affair by Edgar Rice Burroughs: was electrified into action. Like a tigress charging those
who stalked her she leaped swiftly across the clearing
toward the point from which the disturbance had come.
There was an answering commotion in the underbrush
as the girl crashed through, a slender knife gleaming in
her hand.
Bridge and his companions heard the sounds of a
swift and short pursuit followed by voices, one master-
ful, the other frightened and whimpering; and a moment
afterward the girl reappeared dragging a boy with her
--a wide-eyed, terrified, country boy who begged and
The Oakdale Affair |
