| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe: secondly, the condition we are in; especially the generality of the
people who are banished thither. We are surrounded with stronger
things than bars or bolts; on the north side, an unnavigable ocean,
where ship never sailed, and boat never swam; every other way we
have above a thousand miles to pass through the Czar's own
dominion, and by ways utterly impassable, except by the roads made
by the government, and through the towns garrisoned by his troops;
in short, we could neither pass undiscovered by the road, nor
subsist any other way, so that it is in vain to attempt it."
I was silenced at once, and found that they were in a prison every
jot as secure as if they had been locked up in the castle at
Robinson Crusoe |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Heart of the West by O. Henry: of those wagons were scattered about the town "seeing the elephant and
hearing the owl." In their haste to become patrons of the town's
dispensaries of mirth and good cheer the last ones to depart must have
left the great wooden gate swinging open.
Curly had satisfied the hunger of an anaconda and the thirst of a
camel, so he was neither in the mood nor the condition of an explorer.
He zigzagged his way to the first wagon that his eyesight
distinguished in the semi-darkness under the shed. It was a two-horse
wagon with a top of white canvas. The wagon was half filled with loose
piles of wool sacks, two or three great bundles of grey blankets, and
a number of bales, bundles, and boxes. A reasoning eye would have
Heart of the West |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Lord Arthur Savile's Crime, etc. by Oscar Wilde: While thou dost breathe, that pour'st into my verse
Thine own sweet argument, too excellent
For every vulgar paper to rehearse?
O, give thyself the thanks, if aught in me
Worthy perusal stand against thy sight;
For who's so dumb that cannot write to thee,
When thou thyself dost give invention light?
Be thou the tenth Muse, ten times more in worth
Than those old nine which rhymers invocate;
And he that calls on thee, let him bring forth
Eternal numbers to outlive long date -
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