| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Emmuska Orczy: which princes had been proud to kiss.
"At what time did he go?"
But Brogard had evidently had enough of these questionings.
He did not think that it was fitting for a citizen--who was the equal
of anybody--to be thus catechised by these SACRRES ARISTOS, even
though they were rich English ones. It was distinctly more fitting to
his newborn dignity to be as rude as possible; it was a sure sign of
servility to meekly reply to civil questions.
"I don't know," he said surlily. "I have said enough,
VOYONS, LES ARISTOS!. . .He came to-day. He ordered supper. He
went out.--He'll come back. VOILA!"
The Scarlet Pimpernel |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Master of the World by Jules Verne: then came the Isles of the Three Sisters, drowned in the spray from
the abyss.
I sprang up; I started to throw myself into the water, in the
desperate hope of gaining this last refuge. One of the men seized me
from behind.
Suddenly a sharp noise was heard from the mechanism which throbbed
within our craft. The long gangways folded back on the sides of the
machine, spread out like wings, and at the moment when the "Terror"
reached the very edge of the falls, she arose into space, escaping
from the thundering cataract in the center of a lunar rainbow.
Chapter 15
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Cratylus by Plato: words which are artificially made or imported because a need of them is
felt. Neither in our own nor in any other age has the conscious effort of
reflection in man contributed in an appreciable degree to the formation of
language. 'Which of us by taking thought' can make new words or
constructions? Reflection is the least of the causes by which language is
affected, and is likely to have the least power, when the linguistic
instinct is greatest, as in young children and in the infancy of nations.
A kindred error is the separation of the phonetic from the mental element
of language; they are really inseparable--no definite line can be drawn
between them, any more than in any other common act of mind and body. It
is true that within certain limits we possess the power of varying sounds
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