| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Arrow of Gold by Joseph Conrad: suggested a creation of a distant past: immortal art, not
transient life. Her voice had a profound quietness. She excused
herself.
"It's only habit - or instinct - or what you like. I have had to
practise that in self-defence lest I should be tempted sometimes to
cut the arm off."
I remembered the way she had abandoned this very arm and hand to
the white-haired ruffian. It rendered me gloomy and idiotically
obstinate.
"Very ingenious. But this sort of thing is of no use to me," I
declared.
The Arrow of Gold |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Heritage of the Desert by Zane Grey: Evidently they had been returning from the western curve of Coconina.
The direction in which Silvermane was stretching was the only possible
one for Hare. If he swerved off the trail to the left it would be upon
rough rising ground. Not only must he outride this second band to the
point where the trail went down on the other side of the divide, but also
he must get beyond it before they came within rifle range.
"Now! Silver! Go! Go!" Fast as the noble stallion was speeding he
answered to the call. He was in the open now, free of stones and brush,
with the span" of rifles in the air. The wind rushed into Hare's ears,
filling them with a hollow roar; the ground blurred by in reddish sheets.
The horsemen cut down the half mile to a quarter, lessened that, swept
The Heritage of the Desert |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Hellenica by Xenophon: something of the effect here by translating: "the battle hugged
the strand."
[4] Or, "came to their aid along the shore."
B.C. 410. And now the Athenians at Sestos, hearing that Mindarus was
meditating an attack upon them with a squadron of sixty sail, gave him
the slip, and under cover of night escaped to Cardia. Hither also
Alcibiades repaired from Clazomenae, having with him five triremes and
a light skiff; but on learning that the Peloponnesian fleet had left
Abydos and was in full sail for Cyzicus, he set off himself by land to
Sestos, giving orders to the fleet to sail round and join him there.
Presently the vessels arrived, and he was on the point of putting out
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