| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Moby Dick by Herman Melville: to the kelson. So, deprived of one leg, and the strange ship of
course being altogether unsupplied with the kindly invention, Ahab
now found himself abjectly reduced to a clumsy landsman again;
hopelessly eyeing the uncertain changeful height he could hardly hope
to attain.
It has before been hinted, perhaps, that every little untoward
circumstance that befell him, and which indirectly sprang from his
luckless mishap, almost invariably irritated or exasperated Ahab.
And in the present instance, all this was heightened by the sight of
the two officers of the strange ship, leaning over the side, by the
perpendicular ladder of nailed cleets there, and swinging towards him
Moby Dick |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from In a German Pension by Katherine Mansfield: festivities.
"She can't forget how wild Theresa has been," said Frau Ledermann. "Who
could--with the child there? I heard that last Sunday evening Theresa had
hysterics and said that she would not marry this man. They had to get the
priest to her."
"Where is the other one?" asked Frau Brechenmacher. "Why didn't he marry
her?"
The woman shrugged her shoulders.
"Gone--disappeared. He was a traveller, and only stayed at their house two
nights. He was selling shirt buttons--I bought some myself, and they were
beautiful shirt buttons--but what a pig of a fellow! I can't think what he
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Commission in Lunacy by Honore de Balzac: the metal screech; all kinds of industries combine to produce a noise
which the number of instruments renders distracting.
The general system of decoration in this passage, which is neither
courtyard, garden, nor vaulted way, though a little of all, consists
of wooden pillars resting on square stone blocks, and forming arches.
Two archways open on to the little garden; two others, facing the
front gateway, lead to a wooden staircase, with an iron balustrade
that was once a miracle of smith's work, so whimsical are the shapes
given to the metal; the worn steps creak under every tread. The
entrance to each flat has an architrave dark with dirt, grease, and
dust, and outer doors, covered with Utrecht velvet set with brass
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