| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Virginian by Owen Wister: merely driving them where he feared to follow.
"Shorty never could rope a horse alone," I remarked.
The Virginian grinned. "Shorty? Well, Shorty sounds as well as
Ounces. But that ain't the mistake I'm thinking he made."
I knew that he would not tell me, but that was just like him. For
the last twenty minutes, having something to do, he had become
himself again, had come to earth from that unsafe country of the
brain where beckoned a spectral Steve. Nothing was left but in
his eyes that question which pain had set there; and I wondered
if his friend of old, who seemed so brave and amiable, would have
dealt him that hurt at the solemn end had he known what a
The Virginian |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Resurrection by Leo Tolstoy: meadow, and driven into the yard. The foreman demanded from the
women 30 copecks for each cow or two days' work. The women,
however, maintained that the cows had got into the meadow of
their own accord; that they had no money, and asked that the
cows, which had stood in the blazing sun since morning without
food, piteously lowing, should he returned to them, even if it
had to be on the understanding that the price should be worked
off later on.
"How often have I not begged of you," said the smiling foreman,
looking back at Nekhludoff as if calling upon him to be a
witness, "if you drive your cattle home at noon, that you should
Resurrection |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Altar of the Dead by Henry James: differences imperceptible. He knew his candles apart, up to the
colour of the flame, and would still have known them had their
positions all been changed. To other imaginations they might stand
for other things - that they should stand for something to be
hushed before was all he desired; but he was intensely conscious of
the personal note of each and of the distinguishable way it
contributed to the concert. There were hours at which he almost
caught himself wishing that certain of his friends would now die,
that he might establish with them in this manner a connexion more
charming than, as it happened, it was possible to enjoy with them
in life. In regard to those from whom one was separated by the
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