| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe: CHAPTER XIX - RETURN TO ENGLAND
HAVING done all this I left them the next day, and went on board
the ship. We prepared immediately to sail, but did not weigh that
night. The next morning early, two of the five men came swimming
to the ship's side, and making the most lamentable complaint of the
other three, begged to be taken into the ship for God's sake, for
they should be murdered, and begged the captain to take them on
board, though he hanged them immediately. Upon this the captain
pretended to have no power without me; but after some difficulty,
and after their solemn promises of amendment, they were taken on
board, and were, some time after, soundly whipped and pickled;
Robinson Crusoe |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde: You were rather cheeky, very shy, and absolutely extraordinary.
You have changed, of course, but not in appearance.
I wish you would tell me your secret. To get back my youth
I would do anything in the world, except take exercise,
get up early, or be respectable. Youth! There is nothing
like it. It's absurd to talk of the ignorance of youth.
The only people to whose opinions I listen now with any respect
are people much younger than myself. They seem in front of me.
Life has revealed to them her latest wonder. As for the aged,
I always contradict the aged. I do it on principle.
If you ask them their opinion on something that happened yesterday,
The Picture of Dorian Gray |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Deserted Woman by Honore de Balzac: to the one that flattered his hopes--"If the Vicomtesse cares for me,
a clever woman would, of course, choose Switzerland, where nobody
knows either of us, in preference to France, where she would find
censorious critics."
An impassioned lover of a certain stamp would not feel attracted to a
woman clever enough to choose her own ground; such women are too
clever. However, there is nothing to prove that there was any truth in
Gaston's supposition.
The Vicomtesse took a small house by the side of the lake. As soon as
she was installed in it, Gaston came one summer evening in the
twilight. Jacques, that flunkey in grain, showed no sign of surprise,
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