| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte: courage at once. "Keep to common sense, St. John: you are verging
on nonsense. You pretend to be shocked by what I have said. You
are not really shocked: for, with your superior mind, you cannot be
either so dull or so conceited as to misunderstand my meaning. I
say again, I will be your curate, if you like, but never your wife."
Again he turned lividly pale; but, as before, controlled his passion
perfectly. He answered emphatically but calmly -
"A female curate, who is not my wife, would never suit me. With me,
then, it seems, you cannot go: but if you are sincere in your
offer, I will, while in town, speak to a married missionary, whose
wife needs a coadjutor. Your own fortune will make you independent
Jane Eyre |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Beasts of Tarzan by Edgar Rice Burroughs: at his village.
Seeing no reason for withholding the information, she told
him the truth; but when he asked if she expected to meet her
husband at the end of the trip, she shook her head negatively.
Then he told her the purpose of his visit, talking through
the interpreter.
"I have just learned," he said, "from some men who live
by the side of the great water, that your husband followed
you up the Ugambi for several marches, when he was at last
set upon by natives and killed. Therefore I have told you this
that you might not waste your time in a long journey if you
The Beasts of Tarzan |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Life in the Iron-Mills by Rebecca Davis: machines,--nothing more,--hands. It would be kindness. God
help them! What are taste, reason, to creatures who must live
such lives as that?" He pointed to Deborah, sleeping on the
ash-heap. "So many nerves to sting them to pain. What if God
had put your brain, with all its agony of touch, into your
fingers, and bid you work and strike with that?"
"You think you could govern the world better?" laughed the
Doctor.
"I do not think at all."
"That is true philosophy. Drift with the stream, because you
cannot dive deep enough to find bottom, eh?"
Life in the Iron-Mills |
