| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe: Suddenly an expression of agony crossed her face, and she
sprang up, saying, "O, my Harry! Have they got him?"
The boy, at this, jumped from Cudjoe's knee, and running
to her side put up his arms. "O, he's here! he's here!" she
exclaimed.
"O, ma'am!" said she, wildly, to Mrs. Bird, "do protect
us! don't let them get him!"
"Nobody shall hurt you here, poor woman," said Mrs. Bird,
encouragingly. "You are safe; don't be afraid."
"God bless you!" said the woman, covering her face and sobbing;
while the little boy, seeing her crying, tried to get into
 Uncle Tom's Cabin |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Falk by Joseph Conrad: hung on and on till he ran himself into debt over his
ears--I can tell you. I, myself, could show a hand-
ful of his chits for meals and drinks in my drawer.
I could never find out tho' where he found all the
money at last. Can't be but he must have got some-
thing out of that brother of his, a coal merchant in
Port Said. Anyhow he paid everybody before he
left, but the girl nearly broke her heart. Disap-
pointment, of course, and at her age, don't you
know. . . . Mrs. Schomberg here was very friendly
with her, and she could tell you. Awful despair.
 Falk |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin: Hence I was led to dry stems and branches of 94 plants with ripe fruit, and
to place them on sea water. The majority sank quickly, but some which
whilst green floated for a very short time, when dried floated much longer;
for instance, ripe hazel-nuts sank immediately, but when dried, they
floated for 90 days and afterwards when planted they germinated; an
asparagus plant with ripe berries floated for 23 days, when dried it
floated for 85 days, and the seeds afterwards germinated: the ripe seeds
of Helosciadium sank in two days, when dried they floated for above 90
days, and afterwards germinated. Altogether out of the 94 dried plants, 18
floated for above 28 days, and some of the 18 floated for a very much
longer period. So that as 64/87 seeds germinated after an immersion of 28
 On the Origin of Species |