| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Heart of the West by O. Henry: up in his red sleigh and--wait a minute, don't order no drinks yet--
he's goin' to drive down here to Yellowhammer and give the kids--the
kids of this here town--the biggest Christmas tree and the biggest
cryin' doll and Little Giant Boys' Tool Chest blowout that was ever
seen west of the Cape Hatteras."
Two minutes of absolute silence ticked away in the wake of Baldy's
words. It was broken by the House, who, happily conceiving the moment
to be ripe for extending hospitality, sent a dozen whisky glasses
spinning down the bar, with the slower travelling bottle bringing up
the rear.
"Didn't you tell him?" asked the miner called Trinidad.
Heart of the West |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Statesman by Plato: the several parts of their work, lose time in cutting them down, so too we,
partly out of haste, partly out of a magnanimous desire to expose our
former error, and also because we imagined that a king required grand
illustrations, have taken up a marvellous lump of fable, and have been
obliged to use more than was necessary. This made us discourse at large,
and, nevertheless, the story never came to an end. And our discussion
might be compared to a picture of some living being which had been fairly
drawn in outline, but had not yet attained the life and clearness which is
given by the blending of colours. Now to intelligent persons a living
being had better be delineated by language and discourse than by any
painting or work of art: to the duller sort by works of art.
Statesman |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Jolly Corner by Henry James: "Ah but it WAS," he gently insisted. And he stared before him now
as he had been staring for so many weeks. "I was to have known
myself."
"You couldn't!" she returned consolingly. And then reverting, and
as if to account further for what she had herself done, "But it
wasn't only THAT, that you hadn't been at home," she went on. "I
waited till the hour at which we had found Mrs. Muldoon that day of
my going with you; and she arrived, as I've told you, while,
failing to bring any one to the door, I lingered in my despair on
the steps. After a little, if she hadn't come, by such a mercy, I
should have found means to hunt her up. But it wasn't," said Alice
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