| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Tattine by Ruth Ogden [Mrs. Charles W. Ide]: about that, faithful and conscientious to the last degree. Every morning he
would drive over in his old buggy from his little farm in the Raritan Valley,
in abundant time to begin work on the minute of seven, and not until the
minute of six would he lay aside spade or hoe and turn his steps towards his
old horse tied under the tree, behind the barn. But the most attractive thing
about Patrick was his genial kindly smile, a smile that said as plainly as
words, that he had found life very comfortable and pleasant, and that he was
still more than content with it notwithstanding that his back was bowed with
work month in and month out, and the years were hurrying him fast on into old
age.
And so Tattine was fond of Patrick, for what (child though she was) she knew
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Pellucidar by Edgar Rice Burroughs: believed that the paddlers would eventually overhaul
us; but now he couldn't praise it enough.
We had a strong gale for a considerable time, and
eventually dropped Hooja's fleet so far astern that we
could no longer discern them. And then--ah, I shall
never forget that moment--Dian sprang to her feet
with a cry of "Land!"
Sure enough, dead ahead, a long, low coast stretched
across our bow. It was still a long way off, and we
couldn't make out whether it was island or mainland;
but at least it was land. If ever shipwrecked mariners
Pellucidar |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Melmoth Reconciled by Honore de Balzac: understand the lofty political ends involved and the interests of
nation and nation; who cannot grasp political schemes as well as plans
of campaign, and combine the science of the tactician with that of the
administrator, are bound to live in a state of ignorance; the most
boorish peasant in the most backward district in France is scarcely in
a worse case. Such men as these bear the brunt of war, yield passive
obedience to the brain that directs them, and strike down the men
opposed to them as the woodcutter fells timber in the forest. Violent
physical exertion is succeeded by times of inertia, when they repair
the waste. They fight and drink, fight and eat, fight and sleep, that
they may the better deal hard blows; the powers of the mind are not
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