| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie: This time I was received with a smile. Monsieur Poirot was
within. Would I mount? I mounted accordingly.
Poirot was sitting by the table, his head buried in his hands.
He sprang up at my entrance.
"What is it?" I asked solicitously. "You are not ill, I trust?"
"No, no, not ill. But I decide an affair of great moment."
"Whether to catch the criminal or not?" I asked facetiously.
But, to my great surprise, Poirot nodded gravely.
" 'To speak or not to speak,' as your so great Shakespeare says,
'that is the question.' "
I did not trouble to correct the quotation.
The Mysterious Affair at Styles |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Awakening & Selected Short Stories by Kate Chopin: consternation in his voice as he laid down the vinegar cruet and
looked at her through his glasses. "Why, what could have taken you
out on Tuesday? What did you have to do?"
"Nothing. I simply felt like going out, and I went out."
"Well, I hope you left some suitable excuse," said her husband,
somewhat appeased, as he added a dash of cayenne pepper to the soup.
"No, I left no excuse. I told Joe to say I was out, that was all."
"Why, my dear, I should think you'd understand by this time
that people don't do such things; we've got to observe les
convenances if we ever expect to get on and keep up with the
procession. If you felt that you had to leave home this afternoon,
Awakening & Selected Short Stories |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Bickerstaff-Partridge Papers by Jonathan Swift: [Dr. John Arbuthnot and Alexander Pope]
Annus Mirabilis: or,
The wonderful effects of the approaching conjunction of the
planets Jupiter, Mars, and Saturn.
By Mart. Scriblerus, Philomath.
In nova fert animus mutatas dicere formas corpora.....
I suppose every body is sufficiently appriz'd of, and duly
prepar'd for, the famous conjunction to be celebrated the 29th of
this instant December, 1722, foretold by all the sages of
antiquity, under the name of the Annus Mirabilis, or the
metamorphostical conjunction: a word which denotes the mutual
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