| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Another Study of Woman by Honore de Balzac: criticism and crisp anecdotes lead on from one to the next. All eyes
are listening, a gesture asks a question, and an expressive look gives
the answer. In short, and in a word, everything is wit and mind.
The phenomenon of speech, which, when duly studied and well handled,
is the power of the actor and the story-teller, had never so
completely bewitched me. Nor was I alone under the influence of its
spell; we all spent a delightful evening. The conversation had drifted
into anecdote, and brought out in its rushing course some curious
confessions, several portraits, and a thousand follies, which make
this enchanting improvisation impossible to record; still, by setting
these things down in all their natural freshness and abruptness, their
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The American by Henry James: of the fact that she was dressed with unwonted splendor.
She wore a large black silk bonnet, with imposing bows of crape,
and an old black satin dress disposed itself in vaguely
lustrous folds about her person. She had judged it proper
to the occasion to appear in her stateliest apparel.
She had been sitting with her eyes fixed upon the ground,
but when Newman passed before her she looked up at him,
and then she rose.
"Are you a Catholic, Mrs. Bread?" he asked.
"No, sir; I'm a good Church-of-England woman, very Low," she answered.
"But I thought I should be safer in here than outside.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll: The Walrus did beseech.
"A pleasant walk, a pleasant talk,
Along the briny beach:
We cannot do with more than four,
To give a hand to each."
The eldest Oyster looked at him.
But never a word he said:
The eldest Oyster winked his eye,
And shook his heavy head--
Meaning to say he did not choose
To leave the oyster-bed.
Through the Looking-Glass |
