| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from An Inland Voyage by Robert Louis Stevenson: never got accustomed to the speed and fury of the river's flux, or
the miracle of its continuous body. Pan once played upon their
forefathers; and so, by the hands of his river, he still plays upon
these later generations down all the valley of the Oise; and plays
the same air, both sweet and shrill, to tell us of the beauty and
the terror of the world.
The canoe was like a leaf in the current. It took it up and shook
it, and carried it masterfully away, like a Centaur carrying off a
nymph. To keep some command on our direction required hard and
diligent plying of the paddle. The river was in such a hurry for
the sea! Every drop of water ran in a panic, like as many people
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Middlemarch by George Eliot: It is wonderful how much uglier things will look when we only suspect
that we are blamed for them. Even our own persons in the glass
are apt to change their aspect for us after we have heard some frank
remark on their less admirable points; and on the other hand it
is astonishing how pleasantly conscience takes our encroachments
on those who never complain or have nobody to complain for them.
Dagley's homestead never before looked so dismal to Mr. Brooke as it
did today, with his mind thus sore about the fault-finding of the
"Trumpet," echoed by Sir James.
It is true that an observer, under that softening influence of
the fine arts which makes other people's hardships picturesque,
Middlemarch |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Betty Zane by Zane Grey: wife. "But you are as wild as a March hare and some one must tell you things.
Now listen. My brother, the Major, told me that Simon Girty, the renegade, had
been heard to say that he had seen Eb Zane's little sister and that if he ever
got his hands on her he would make a squaw of her. I am not teasing you. I am
telling you the truth. Girty saw you when you were at Fort Pitt two years ago.
Now what would you do if he caught you on one of your lonely rides and carried
you off to his wigwam? He has done things like that before. James Girty
carried off one of the Johnson girls. Her brothers tried to rescue her and
lost their lives. It is a common trick of the Indians."
"What would I do if Mr. Simon Girty tried to make a squaw of me?" exclaimed
Betty, her eyes flashing fire. "Why, I'd kill him!"
Betty Zane |
