| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin: made the greater progress, from that greater clearness of head
and quicker apprehension which usually attend temperance in eating
and drinking.
And now it was that, being on some occasion made asham'd of my
ignorance in figures, which I had twice failed in learning when
at school, I took Cocker's book of Arithmetick, and went through
the whole by myself with great ease. I also read Seller's and
Shermy's books of Navigation, and became acquainted with the little
geometry they contain; but never proceeded far in that science.
And I read about this time Locke On Human Understanding,
and the Art of Thinking, by Messrs. du Port Royal.
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Life of the Spider by J. Henri Fabre: where a private door stands always ajar, allowing the animal, when
hard-pushed, to escape through the grass and gain the open.
It is well to know this arrangement of the home, if you wish to
capture the Spider without hurting her. When attacked from the
front, the fugitive runs down and slips through the postern-gate at
the bottom. To look for her by rummaging in the brushwood often
leads to nothing, so swift is her flight; besides, a blind search
entails a great risk of maiming her. Let us eschew violence, which
is but seldom successful, and resort to craft.
We catch sight of the Spider at the entrance to her tube. If
practicable, squeeze the bottom of the tuft, containing the neck of
The Life of the Spider |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald: When the JAZZ HISTORY OF THE WORLD was over, girls were putting
their heads on men's shoulders in a puppyish, convivial way, girls were
swooning backward playfully into men's arms, even into groups, knowing
that some one would arrest their falls--but no one swooned backward on
Gatsby, and no French bob touched Gatsby's shoulder, and no singing
quartets were formed with Gatsby's head for one link.
"I beg your pardon."
Gatsby's butler was suddenly standing beside us.
"Miss Baker?" he inquired. "I beg your pardon, but Mr. Gatsby would like
to speak to you alone."
"With me?" she exclaimed in surprise.
The Great Gatsby |
