| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Barnaby Rudge by Charles Dickens: riverside. Here they were joined by a corporal and four more
heroes, of whom two were drunk and daring, and two sober and
penitent, but each of whom, like Joe, had his dusty stick and
bundle. The party embarked in a passage-boat bound for Gravesend,
whence they were to proceed on foot to Chatham; the wind was in
their favour, and they soon left London behind them, a mere dark
mist--a giant phantom in the air.
Chapter 32
Misfortunes, saith the adage, never come singly. There is little
doubt that troubles are exceedingly gregarious in their nature, and
flying in flocks, are apt to perch capriciously; crowding on the
Barnaby Rudge |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Adam Bede by George Eliot: remarkable precision always in one place. Leisure is gone--gone
where the spinning-wheels are gone, and the pack-horses, and the
slow waggons, and the pedlars, who brought bargains to the door on
sunny afternoons. Ingenious philosophers tell you, perhaps, that
the great work of the steam-engine is to create leisure for
mankind. Do not believe them: it only creates a vacuum for eager
thought to rush in. Even idleness is eager now--eager for
amusement; prone to excursion-trains, art museums, periodical
literature, and exciting novels; prone even to scientific
theorizing and cursory peeps through microscopes. Old Leisure was
quite a different personage. He only read one newspaper, innocent
Adam Bede |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Breaking Point by Mary Roberts Rinehart: rather recklessly into the psychology of the situation, and only
got out of the unconscious mind with an effort. But behind it all
was his overwhelming desire to save her pain.
"You must remember," he said, "that Dick's life before this
happened, and since, are two different things. Whatever he did
then should not count against him now."
"Of course not," she said. "Then he - had done something?"
"Yes. Something that brought him into conflict with the authorities."
She did not shrink from that, and he was encouraged to go on.
"He was young then, remember. Only twenty-one or so. And there
was a quarrel with another man. The other man was shot."
The Breaking Point |
