| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy: understood without naming.
The princess, who had a straight, rigid body, abnormally long for
her legs, looked directly at Prince Vasili with no sign of emotion
in her prominent gray eyes. Then she shook her head and glanced up
at the icons with a sigh. This might have been taken as an
expression of sorrow and devotion, or of weariness and hope of resting
before long. Prince Vasili understood it as an expression of
weariness.
"And I?" he said; "do you think it is easier for me? I am as worn
out as a post horse, but still I must have a talk with you, Catiche, a
very serious talk."
War and Peace |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Hellenica by Xenophon: obstacle to any course they might wish to adopt, proceeded to plot
against him. They addressed themselves to the members of the senate in
private, here a man and there a man, and denounced him as the marplot
of the constitution. Then they issued an order to the young men,
picking out the most audacious characters they could find, to be
present, each with a dagger hidden in the hollow of the armpit; and so
called a meeting of the senate. When Theramenes had taken his place,
Critias got up and addressed the meeting:
"If," said he, "any member of this council, here seated, imagines that
an undue amount of blood has been shed, let me remind him that with
changes of constitution such things can not be avoided. It is the rule
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Adam Bede by George Eliot: Seth's eyes were red, and there was a look of deep depression on
his mild face.
"Yes, Addy, but it's what must be borne, and can't be helped.
Why, thee'st never been to the school, then?"
"School? No, that screw can wait," said Adam, hammering away
again.
"Let me take my turn now, and do thee go to bed," said Seth.
"No, lad, I'd rather go on, now I'm in harness. Thee't help me to
carry it to Brox'on when it's done. I'll call thee up at sunrise.
Go and eat thy supper, and shut the door so as I mayn't hear
Mother's talk."
Adam Bede |
