| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe: could not come to charge us in a body: it was, indeed, my old
Portuguese pilot who proposed it, and who had this excellency
attending him, that he was always readiest and most apt to direct
and encourage us in cases of the most danger. We advanced
immediately, with what speed we could, and gained that little wood;
the Tartars, or thieves, for we knew not what to call them, keeping
their stand, and not attempting to hinder us. When we came
thither, we found, to our great satisfaction, that it was a swampy
piece of ground, and on the one side a very great spring of water,
which, running out in a little brook, was a little farther joined
by another of the like size; and was, in short, the source of a
Robinson Crusoe |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Riders of the Purple Sage by Zane Grey: amber-tinted water, and the droves of shaggy, dusty horses and
mustangs, the sleek, clean-limbed, blooded racers, and the
browsing herds of cattle and the lean, sun-browned riders of the
sage.
While she waited there she forgot the prospect of untoward
change. The bray of a lazy burro broke the afternoon quiet, and
it was comfortingly suggestive of the drowsy farmyard, and the
open corrals, and the green alfalfa fields. Her clear sight
intensified the purple sage-slope as it rolled before her. Low
swells of prairie-like ground sloped up to the west. Dark, lonely
cedar-trees, few and far between, stood out strikingly, and at
Riders of the Purple Sage |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Chouans by Honore de Balzac: suspicions of the Republican officers. Some took off their broad
leather belts containing pistols and hunting-knives. The marquis
requested them to show the utmost prudence, and went himself to see to
the reception of the troublesome guests whom fate had bestowed upon
him.
Mademoiselle de Verneuil, who had raised her feet to the fire and was
now warming them, did not turn her head as Montauran left the room,
thus disappointing those present, who were anxious to see her.
Francine alone saw the change produced upon the company by the
departure of the young chief. The gentlemen gathered hastily round
Madame du Gua, and during a conversation carried on in an undertone
The Chouans |
