| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen: must be naturally bad, or she could not be guilty of such an
enormity, at so early an age. Howsoever that may be, you are
grievously to be pitied; in which opinion I am not only joined by
Mrs. Collins, but likewise by Lady Catherine and her daughter,
to whom I have related the affair. They agree with me in
apprehending that this false step in one daughter will be
injurious to the fortunes of all the others; for who, as Lady
Catherine herself condescendingly says, will connect themselves
with such a family? And this consideration leads me moreover
to reflect, with augmented satisfaction, on a certain event of last
November; for had it been otherwise, I must have been involved
Pride and Prejudice |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Redheaded Outfield by Zane Grey: team to the same coat of whitewash. We
girls are up in arms. Our boys stood a fair chance
to win this game, but now there's a doubt. By
the way, are you acquainted in Bellville?''
``No. I met Reed, the Bellville captain, in New
York this week. He had already gotten an extra
pitcher--another ringer--for this game, but he
said he preferred me, if it could be arranged.''
While conversing, Wayne made note of the fact
that the other girls studiously left him to Miss
Huling. If the avoidance had not been so marked,
The Redheaded Outfield |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Walden by Henry David Thoreau: except wood-chopping, ice-cutting, or the like business, which ever
to my knowledge detained at Walden Pond for a whole half-day any of
my fellow-citizens, whether fathers or children of the town, with
just one exception, was fishing. Commonly they did not think that
they were lucky, or well paid for their time, unless they got a long
string of fish, though they had the opportunity of seeing the pond
all the while. They might go there a thousand times before the
sediment of fishing would sink to the bottom and leave their purpose
pure; but no doubt such a clarifying process would be going on all
the while. The Governor and his Council faintly remember the pond,
for they went a-fishing there when they were boys; but now they are
Walden |
