| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Aeneid by Virgil: On Tiber's shores they land, secure of fate,
Triumphant o'er the storms and Juno's hate.
Mars could in mutual blood the Centaurs bathe,
And Jove himself gave way to Cynthia's wrath,
Who sent the tusky boar to Calydon;
(What great offense had either people done?)
But I, the consort of the Thunderer,
Have wag'd a long and unsuccessful war,
With various arts and arms in vain have toil'd,
And by a mortal man at length am foil'd.
If native pow'r prevail not, shall I doubt
Aeneid |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from My Antonia by Willa Cather: the rough stubble on his face. `That ain't the piece of harness
I loaned you, Ambrosch; or, if it is, you've used it shameful.
I ain't a-going to carry such a looking thing back to Mr. Burden.'
Ambrosch dropped the collar on the ground. `All right,'
he said coolly, took up his oil-can, and began to climb the mill.
Jake caught him by the belt of his trousers and yanked him back.
Ambrosch's feet had scarcely touched the ground when he lunged out
with a vicious kick at Jake's stomach. Fortunately, Jake was in such
a position that he could dodge it. This was not the sort of thing
country boys did when they played at fisticuffs, and Jake was furious.
He landed Ambrosch a blow on the head--it sounded like the crack
My Antonia |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin: natural inclination, custom, or company might lead me into. As I knew,
or thought I knew, what was right and wrong, I did not see why I
might not always do the one and avoid the other. But I soon found
I had undertaken a task of more difficulty than I bad imagined.
While my care was employ'd in guarding against one fault, I was
often surprised by another; habit took the advantage of inattention;
inclination was sometimes too strong for reason. I concluded, at length,
that the mere speculative conviction that it was our interest to be
completely virtuous, was not sufficient to prevent our slipping;
and that the contrary habits must be broken, and good ones acquired
and established, before we can have any dependence on a steady,
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin |
