| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Captain Stormfield by Mark Twain: used to flush a comet occasionally that was something LIKE. WE
haven't got any such comets - ours don't begin. One night I was
swinging along at a good round gait, everything taut and trim, and
the wind in my favor - I judged I was going about a million miles a
minute - it might have been more, it couldn't have been less - when
I flushed a most uncommonly big one about three points off my
starboard bow. By his stern lights I judged he was bearing about
northeast-and-by-north-half-east. Well, it was so near my course
that I wouldn't throw away the chance; so I fell off a point,
steadied my helm, and went for him. You should have heard me whiz,
and seen the electric fur fly! In about a minute and a half I was
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Within the Tides by Joseph Conrad: "'But now they think I am a better man than Bamtz ever was,' she
said with a faint laugh.
"The child moaned. She went down on her knees, and, bending low,
contemplated him mournfully. Then raising her head, she asked
Davidson whether he thought the child would get better. Davidson
was sure of it. She murmured sadly: 'Poor kid. There's nothing
in life for such as he. Not a dog's chance. But I couldn't let
him go, Davy! I couldn't.'
"Davidson felt a profound pity for the child. She laid her hand on
his knee and whispered an earnest warning against the Frenchman.
Davy must never let him come to close quarters. Naturally Davidson
Within the Tides |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Father Damien by Robert Louis Stevenson: much a better man than either you or me, who did what we have never
dreamed of daring - he too tasted of our common frailty. "O, Iago,
the pity of it!" The least tender should be moved to tears; the
most incredulous to prayer. And all that you could do was to pen
your letter to the Reverend H. B. Gage!
Is it growing at all clear to you what a picture you have drawn of
your own heart? I will try yet once again to make it clearer. You
had a father: suppose this tale were about him, and some informant
brought it to you, proof in hand: I am not making too high an
estimate of your emotional nature when I suppose you would regret
the circumstance? that you would feel the tale of frailty the more
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