| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Call of the Wild by Jack London: life itself--that holds motionless for endless hours the spider in
its web, the snake in its coils, the panther in its ambuscade;
this patience belongs peculiarly to life when it hunts its living
food; and it belonged to Buck as he clung to the flank of the
herd, retarding its march, irritating the young bulls, worrying
the cows with their half-grown calves, and driving the wounded
bull mad with helpless rage. For half a day this continued. Buck
multiplied himself, attacking from all sides, enveloping the herd
in a whirlwind of menace, cutting out his victim as fast as it
could rejoin its mates, wearing out the patience of creatures
preyed upon, which is a lesser patience than that of creatures
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from A Footnote to History by Robert Louis Stevenson: his difference with Mataafa) couched unhappily in vivid and
figurative language. The adviser now sleeps in the Pacific, but
the evil that he chanced to do lives after him. His Majesty was
greatly (and I must say justly) offended by the freedom of the
expressions used; he appealed to his white advisers; and these,
whether from want of thought or by design, issued an ignominious
proclamation. Intending visitors to the palace must appear before
their consuls and justify their business. The majesty of buried
Samoa was henceforth only to be viewed (like a private collection)
under special permit; and was thus at once cut off from the company
and opinions of the self respecting. To retain any dignity in such
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Schoolmistress and Other Stories by Anton Chekhov: expected to hear at once footsteps and a cry of astonishment, but
three minutes passed and it was as quiet as ever in the room. He
made up his mind to go in.
At the table a man unlike ordinary people was sitting motionless.
He was a skeleton with the skin drawn tight over his bones, with
long curls like a woman's and a shaggy beard. His face was yellow
with an earthy tint in it, his cheeks were hollow, his back long
and narrow, and the hand on which his shaggy head was propped was
so thin and delicate that it was dreadful to look at it. His hair
was already streaked with silver, and seeing his emaciated,
aged-looking face, no one would have believed that he was only
The Schoolmistress and Other Stories |
