| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Tono Bungay by H. G. Wells: my head as I went in the morning to the College. I am by nature
a doer and only by the way a critic; his philosophical assertion
of the incalculable vagueness of life which fitted his natural
indolence roused my more irritable and energetic nature to
active protests. "It's all so pointless," I said, "because
people are slack and because it's in the ebb of an age. But
you're a socialist. Well, let's bring that about! And there's a
purpose. There you are!"
Ewart gave me all my first conceptions of socialism; in a little
while I was an enthusiastic socialist and he was a passive
resister to the practical exposition of the theories he had
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Call of the Wild by Jack London: day by day. The trail was in excellent condition, well packed and
hard, and there was no new-fallen snow with which to contend. It
was not too cold. The temperature dropped to fifty below zero and
remained there the whole trip. The men rode and ran by turn, and
the dogs were kept on the jump, with but infrequent stoppages.
The Thirty Mile River was comparatively coated with ice, and they
covered in one day going out what had taken them ten days coming
in. In one run they made a sixty-mile dash from the foot of Lake
Le Barge to the White Horse Rapids. Across Marsh, Tagish, and
Bennett (seventy miles of lakes), they flew so fast that the man
whose turn it was to run towed behind the sled at the end of a
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from A Personal Record by Joseph Conrad: gone. In the moment of his exit I heard the sustained booming of
the wind, the swish of the water on the decks of the Torrens, and
the subdued, as if distant, roar of the rising sea. I noted the
growing disquiet in the great restlessness of the ocean, and
responded professionally to it with the thought that at eight
o'clock, in another half hour or so at the farthest, the
topgallant sails would have to come off the ship.
Next day, but this time in the first dog watch, Jacques entered
my cabin. He had a thick woollen muffler round his throat, and
the MS. was in his hand. He tendered it to me with a steady
look, but without a word. I took it in silence. He sat down on
A Personal Record |
