| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe: given for our advantage, if we knew how to make use of it. Come,
let us go and look abroad; and if we find nothing at all in it to
justify the trouble, I'll tell you a story to the purpose, that
shall convince you of the justice of my proposing it."
They went out presently to go up to the top of the hill, where I
used to go; but they being strong, and a good company, nor alone,
as I was, used none of my cautions to go up by the ladder, and
pulling it up after them, to go up a second stage to the top, but
were going round through the grove unwarily, when they were
surprised with seeing a light as of fire, a very little way from
them, and hearing the voices of men, not of one or two, but of a
Robinson Crusoe |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Purse by Honore de Balzac: their age, and their long service still more conspicuous. An
indescribable odor pervaded the room, a mingled smell of the
exhalations from the lumber room, and the vapors of the dining-
room, with those from the stairs, though the window was partly
open. The air from the street fluttered the dusty curtains, which
were carefully drawn so as to hide the window bay, where former
tenants had testified to their presence by various ornamental
additions--a sort of domestic fresco.
Adelaide hastened to open the door of the inner room, where she
announced the painter with evident pleasure. Hippolyte, who, of
yore, had seen the same signs of poverty in his mother's home,
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne: a sort of quay. The lake, then, supporting it was a lake
imprisoned by a circle of walls, measuring two miles in diameter
and six in circumference. Its level (the manometer showed)
could only be the same as the outside level, for there must
necessarily be a communication between the lake and the sea.
The high partitions, leaning forward on their base, grew into
a vaulted roof bearing the shape of an immense funnel turned
upside down, the height being about five or six hundred yards.
At the summit was a circular orifice, by which I had caught the slight
gleam of light, evidently daylight.
"Where are we?" I asked.
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea |
