| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from A Straight Deal by Owen Wister: anti-English complex and your pro-French complex entice your memory into
retaining only evil about England and only good about France. That is why
I pull out from the recorded, certified, and perfectly ascertainable
past, these few large facts. They amply justify, as it seems to me, and
as I think it must seem to any reader with an open mind, what I said
about the pattern.
We must now touch upon the War of 1812. There is a political aspect of
this war which casts upon it a light not generally shed by our school
histories. Bonaparte is again the point. Nine years after our Louisiana
Purchase from him, we declared war upon England. At that moment England
was heavily absorbed in her struggle with Bonaparte. It is true that we
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Figure in the Carpet by Henry James: I considered a moment - that is I followed at a respectful
distance, rather gasping. I was fascinated - easily, you'll say;
but I wasn't going after all to be put off my guard. "Your
description's certainly beautiful, but it doesn't make what you
describe very distinct."
"I promise you it would be distinct if it should dawn on you at
all." I saw that the charm of our topic overflowed for my
companion into an emotion as lively as my own. "At any rate," he
went on, "I can speak for myself: there's an idea in my work
without which I wouldn't have given a straw for the whole job.
It's the finest fullest intention of the lot, and the application
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne: the same road to return to the Nautilus. The new road was very steep,
and consequently very painful. We approached the surface of the sea rapidly.
But this return to the upper strata was not so sudden as to cause relief
from the pressure too rapidly, which might have produced serious disorder
in our organisation, and brought on internal lesions, so fatal to divers.
Very soon light reappeared and grew, and, the sun being low on the horizon,
the refraction edged the different objects with a spectral ring.
At ten yards and a half deep, we walked amidst a shoal of little fishes
of all kinds, more numerous than the birds of the air, and also more agile;
but no aquatic game worthy of a shot had as yet met our gaze, when at
that moment I saw the Captain shoulder his gun quickly, and follow
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea |
