| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Lone Star Ranger by Zane Grey: "Are you alone?" went on Longstreth's penetrating voice.
"Yes," she replied. "Ruth went to bed."
The door swung inward with a swift scrape and jar. Longstreth
half entered, haggard, flaming-eyed. Behind him Duane saw
Lawson, and indistinctly another man.
Longstreth barred Lawson from entering, which action showed
control as well as distrust. He wanted to see into the room.
When he had glanced around he went out and closed the door.
Then what seemed a long interval ensued. The house grew silent
once more. Duane could not see Miss Longstreth, but he heard
her quick breathing. How long did she mean to let him stay
The Lone Star Ranger |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Statesman by Plato: STRANGER: And now, in which of these divisions shall we place the king?--
Is he a judge and a kind of spectator? Or shall we assign to him the art
of command--for he is a ruler?
YOUNG SOCRATES: The latter, clearly.
STRANGER: Then we must see whether there is any mark of division in the
art of command too. I am inclined to think that there is a distinction
similar to that of manufacturer and retail dealer, which parts off the king
from the herald.
YOUNG SOCRATES: How is this?
STRANGER: Why, does not the retailer receive and sell over again the
productions of others, which have been sold before?
Statesman |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Chouans by Honore de Balzac: posted in advance upon the road. Satisfied with what he saw he was
about to give the order to march, when the tricolor cockades of the
two soldiers he had sent to beat the woods to the left caught his eye;
he waited therefore till the two others, who had gone to the right,
should reappear.
"Perhaps the ball will open over there," he said to his officers,
pointing to the woods from which the two men did not emerge.
While the first two made their report Hulot's attention was distracted
momentarily from Marche-a-Terre. The Chouan at once sent his owl's-cry
to an apparently vast distance, and before the men who guarded him
could raise their muskets and take aim he had struck them a blow with
The Chouans |
