| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Collected Articles by Frederick Douglass: My whole future depended upon the decision of this conductor.
Agitated though I was while this ceremony was proceeding, still,
externally, at least, I was apparently calm and self-possessed.
He went on with his duty--examining several colored passengers
before reaching me. He was somewhat harsh in tome and peremptory
in manner until he reached me, when, strange enough, and to my surprise
and relief, his whole manner changed. Seeing that I did not readily
produce my free papers, as the other colored persons in the car had done,
he said to me, in friendly contrast with his bearing toward the others:
"I suppose you have your free papers?"
To which I answered:
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe: by me, and do just as I bid him. He said, "Me die when you bid
die, master." So I went and fetched a good dram of rum and gave
him; for I had been so good a husband of my rum that I had a great
deal left. When we had drunk it, I made him take the two fowling-
pieces, which we always carried, and loaded them with large swan-
shot, as big as small pistol-bullets. Then I took four muskets,
and loaded them with two slugs and five small bullets each; and my
two pistols I loaded with a brace of bullets each. I hung my great
sword, as usual, naked by my side, and gave Friday his hatchet.
When I had thus prepared myself, I took my perspective glass, and
went up to the side of the hill, to see what I could discover; and
Robinson Crusoe |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierce: Federal army, directed by a sergeant who in civil life may
have been a deputy sheriff. At a short remove upon the same
temporary platform was an officer in the uniform of his rank,
armed. He was a captain. A sentinel at each end of the
bridge stood with his rifle in the position known as
"support," that is to say, vertical in front of the left
shoulder, the hammer resting on the forearm thrown straight
across the chest -- a formal and unnatural position,
enforcing an erect carriage of the body. It did not appear
to be the duty of these two men to know what was occurring at
the center of the bridge; they merely blockaded the two ends
An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge |
