| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Wife, et al by Anton Chekhov: himself to dreary thoughts. When it began to drizzle with rain he
turned homewards. As he walked back he made up his mind at all
costs to talk to his father, to explain to him, once and for all,
that it was dreadful and oppressive to live with him.
He found perfect stillness in the house. His sister Varvara was
lying behind a screen with a headache, moaning faintly. His
mother, with a look of amazement and guilt upon her face, was
sitting beside her on a box, mending Arhipka's trousers. Yevgraf
Ivanovitch was pacing from one window to another, scowling at the
weather. From his walk, from the way he cleared his throat, and
even from the back of his head, it was evident he felt himself to
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from 'Twixt Land & Sea by Joseph Conrad: Directly the gunboat had been made out emerging from her ambush,
Schultz, of the fascinating voice, had given signs of strange
agitation. All that day, ever since leaving the Malay town up the
river, he had shown a haggard face, going about his duties like a
man with something weighing on his mind. Jasper had noticed it,
but the mate, turning away, as though he had not liked being looked
at, had muttered shamefacedly of a headache and a touch of fever.
He must have had it very badly when, dodging behind his captain he
wondered aloud: "What can that fellow want with us?" . . . A naked
man standing in a freezing blast and trying not to shiver could not
have spoken with a more harshly uncertain intonation. But it might
'Twixt Land & Sea |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Ivanhoe by Walter Scott: the Palmer, with a troubled voice. ``I
would I knew him better, since you, lady, are interested
in his fate. He hath, I believe, surmounted
the persecution of his enemies in Palestine, and
is on the eve of returning to England, where you,
lady, must know better than I, what is his chance
of happiness.''
The Lady Rowena sighed deeply, and asked
more particularly when the Knight of Ivanhoe
might be expected in his native country, and whether
he would not be exposed to great dangers by
Ivanhoe |
