| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Facino Cane by Honore de Balzac: that began it. The very fact that it was left unfinished told of the
unknown worker's death. Unless his devoted toil was to be wasted for
ever, his successor must have some knowledge of Arabic, but I had
studied Oriental languages at the Armenian Convent. A few words
written on the back of the stone recorded the unhappy man's fate; he
had fallen a victim to his great possessions; Venice had coveted his
wealth and seized upon it. A whole month went by before I obtained any
result; but whenever I felt my strength failing as I worked, I heard
the chink of gold, I saw gold spread before me, I was dazzled by
diamonds.--Ah! wait.
"One night my blunted steel struck on wood. I whetted the fragment of
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Glaucus/The Wonders of the Shore by Charles Kingsley: blue bugle, and white bramble-flowers, but perhaps with the alp-
rose and the "gemsen-kraut" of Mont Blanc, at least with Alpine
Saxifrages which have now retreated a thousand feet up the mountain
side, and with the blue Snow-Gentian, and the Canadian Sedum, which
have all but vanished out of the British Isles. And what is it
which tells him that strange story? Yon smooth and rounded surface
of rock, polished, remark, across the strata and against the grain;
and furrowed here and there, as if by iron talons, with long
parallel scratches. It was the crawling of a glacier which
polished that rock-face; the stones fallen from Snowdon peak into
the half-liquid lake of ice above, which ploughed those furrows.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Give Me Liberty Or Give Me Death by Patrick Henry: country as that which we possess, are invincible by any force which our enemy
can send against us. Besides, sir, we shall not fight our battles alone.
There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations, and who will
raise up friends to fight our battles for us. The battle, sir, is not to the
strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave. Besides, sir,
we have no election. If we were base enough to desire it, it is now too late
to retire from the contest. There is no retreat but in submission and slavery!
Our chains are forged! Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston!
The war is inevitable--and let it come! I repeat it, sir, let it come.
It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace--
but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps
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