| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from At the Earth's Core by Edgar Rice Burroughs: Clumps of strange trees dotted the landscape here and there
almost to the water, and rank grass and ferns grew between.
From the nature of the vegetation I was convinced that
the land between the ocean and the foothills was swampy,
though directly before me it seemed dry enough all the
way to the sandy strip along which the restless waters
advanced and retreated.
Curiosity prompted me to walk down to the beach,
for the scene was very beautiful. As I passed along
beside the deep and tangled vegetation of the swamp I
thought that I saw a movement of the ferns at my left,
At the Earth's Core |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Betty Zane by Zane Grey: well-laden rafts coming down the river, and the air of liveliness and
animation about the growing settlement, his smile into one of pride and
satisfaction. The prophecy that he had made twelve years before was fulfilled.
His dream was realized. The wild, beautiful spot where he had once built a
bark shack and camped half a year without seeing a white man was now the scene
of a bustling settlement; and he believed he would live to see that settlement
grow into a prosperous city. He did not think of the thousands of acres which
would one day make him a wealthy man. He was a pioneer at heart; he had opened
up that rich new country; he had conquered all obstacles, and that was enough
to make him content.
"Papa, when shall I be big enough to fight bars and bufflers and Injuns?"
Betty Zane |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Manon Lescaut by Abbe Prevost: one, but my argument does not at all depend upon it. I was about
to explain what you consider a contradiction--the persevering in
a painful pursuit; and I think I have satisfactorily proved, that
if there be any contradiction in that, we shall be both equally
obnoxious to the charge. It was in this light, only, that I
could observe no difference in our cases, and I cannot as yet
perceive any.
"`You may probably answer, that the proposed end, the promised
reward, of virtue, is infinitely superior to that of love? No
one disputes it, but that is not the question--we are only
discussing the relative aid they both afford in the endurance of
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