| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Of The Nature of Things by Lucretius: One against other, smote by the blustering south,
Till all ablaze with bursting flower of flame."
Good sooth- yet fire is not ingraft in wood,
But many are the seeds of heat, and when
Rubbing together they together flow,
They start the conflagrations in the forests.
Whereas if flame, already fashioned, lay
Stored up within the forests, then the fires
Could not for any time be kept unseen,
But would be laying all the wildwood waste
And burning all the boscage. Now dost see
Of The Nature of Things |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain: Each in her turn stepped forward to the edge of the
platform, cleared her throat, held up her manuscript
(tied with dainty ribbon), and proceeded to read, with
labored attention to "expression" and punctuation.
The themes were the same that had been illuminated
upon similar occasions by their mothers before them,
their grandmothers, and doubtless all their ancestors in
the female line clear back to the Crusades. "Friend-
ship" was one; "Memories of Other Days"; "Religion
in History"; "Dream Land"; "The Advantages of
Culture"; "Forms of Political Government Compared
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Forged Coupon by Leo Tolstoy: inal contributions, in which he carried out the
principle which he constantly laid down for his
collaborators, that literary graces must be set
aside, and that the mental calibre of those for
whom the books were primarily intended must
be constantly borne in mind. He attained a
splendid fulfilment of his own theories, employing
the moujik's expressive vernacular in portraying
his homely wisdom, religious faith, and goodness
of nature. Sometimes the prevailing simplicity
of style and motive is tinged with a vague colour-
The Forged Coupon |
