| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Democracy In America, Volume 1 by Alexis de Toqueville: theory of the permanent equality of property. But wealth
circulates with inconceivable rapidity, and experience shows that
it is rare to find two succeeding generations in the full
enjoyment of it.
This picture, which may perhaps be thought to be
overcharged, still gives a very imperfect idea of what is taking
place in the new States of the West and South-west. At the end
of the last century a few bold adventurers began to penetrate
into the valleys of the Mississippi, and the mass of the
population very soon began to move in that direction: communities
unheard of till then were seen to emerge from the wilds: States
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain: He says, 'I went down in the hold.'
All through that fight I was scared nearly to death.
I hardly knew anything, I was so frightened; but you see,
nobody knew that but me. Next day General Polk sent for me,
and praised me for my bravery and gallant conduct.
I never said anything, I let it go at that. I judged it wasn't so,
but it was not for me to contradict a general officer.
Pretty soon after that I was sick, and used up, and had to go
off to the Hot Springs. When there, I got a good many
letters from commanders saying they wanted me to come back.
I declined, because I wasn't well enough or strong enough;
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Nada the Lily by H. Rider Haggard: the bones of the boy should be. But I had no wish to come there, being
afraid of the wolves, for now I knew that these were the ghosts who
live upon the mountain. So I bethought me that I would fly, and turned
to go. And, Umslopogaas, even as I turned, the great club Watcher of
the Fords swung round and smote me on the back with such a blow as a
man smites upon a coward. Now whether this was by chance or whether
the Watcher would shame him who bore it, say you, for I do not know.
At the least, shame entered into me. Should I go back to be mocked by
the people of the kraal and by the old woman? And if I wished to go,
should I not be killed by the ghosts at night in the forest? Nay, it
was better to die in the jaws of the wolves, and at once.
Nada the Lily |
