| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Some Reminiscences by Joseph Conrad: his stepchildren's ingratitude and his wife's blind infatuation;
but as at the same time he displayed great cleverness in the art
of concealing material documents (he was even suspected of having
burnt a lot of historically interesting family papers), this
scandalous litigation had to be ended by a compromise lest worse
should befall. It was settled finally by a surrender, out of the
disputed estate, in full satisfaction of all claims, of two
villages with the names of which I do not intend to trouble my
readers. After this lame and impotent conclusion neither the
wife nor the stepsons had anything to say to the man who had
presented the world with such a successful example of self-help
Some Reminiscences |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Burning Daylight by Jack London: you. I'd like to meander into those rooms of yours at Berkeley
for the first time. And there's no use talking, I'm plumb
soaking with regret that I can't put my arms around you again
that time you leaned your head on my breast and cried in the wind
and rain."
CHAPTER XXVII
But there came the day, one year, in early April, when Dede sat
in an easy chair on the porch, sewing on certain small garments,
while Daylight read aloud to her. It was in the afternoon, and a
bright sun was shining down on a world of new green. Along the
irrigation channels of the vegetable garden streams of water were
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from From London to Land's End by Daniel Defoe: Courts for the whole county of Cornwall.
There is a mock cavalcade kept up at this town, which is very
remarkable. The particulars, as they are related by Mr. Carew in
his "Survey of Cornwall," take as follows:-
"Upon Little Easter Sunday the freeholders of this town and manor,
by themselves or their deputies, did there assemble; amongst whom
one (as it fell to his lot by turn), bravely apparelled, gallantly
mounted, with a crown on his head, a sceptre in his hand, and a
sword borne before him, and dutifully attended by all the rest
(also on horseback), rode through the principal street to the
church. The curate in his best beseen solemnly received him at the
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