| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from A Personal Record by Joseph Conrad: object of his concise address was to call my attention to a rope
which he incontinently flung down for me to catch. I caught it,
though it was not really necessary, the ship having no way on her
by that time. Then everything went on very swiftly. The dinghy
came with a slight bump against the steamer's side; the pilot,
grabbing for the rope ladder, had scrambled half-way up before I
knew that our task of boarding was done; the harsh, muffled
clanging of the engine-room telegraph struck my ear through the
iron plate; my companion in the dinghy was urging me to "shove
off--push hard"; and when I bore against the smooth flank of the
first English ship I ever touched in my life, I felt it already
A Personal Record |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Louis Lambert by Honore de Balzac: our favorite studies. However, as books were prohibited, our prison
hours were chiefly filled up with metaphysical discussions, or with
relating singular facts connected with the phenomena of mind.
One of the most extraordinary of these incidents beyond question is
this, which I will here record, not only because it concerns Lambert,
but because it perhaps was the turning-point of his scientific career.
By the law of custom in all schools, Thursday and Sunday were
holidays; but the services, which we were made to attend very
regularly, so completely filled up Sunday, that we considered Thursday
our only real day of freedom. After once attending Mass, we had a long
day before us to spend in walks in the country round the town of
Louis Lambert |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Tin Woodman of Oz by L. Frank Baum: them so many trials and troubles. Perhaps the Tin
Woodman's heart did not beat any faster, because it was
made of red velvet and stuffed with sawdust, and the
Tin Soldier's heart was made of tin and reposed in his
tin bosom without a hint of emotion. However, there is
little doubt that they both knew that a critical moment
in their lives had arrived, and that Nimmie Amee's
decision was destined to influence the future of one or
the other.
As they assumed their natural sizes and the rhubarb
leaves that had before towered above their heads now
The Tin Woodman of Oz |
