| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Ivanhoe by Walter Scott: minutes.
``Friend Gurth,'' he said, ``I have mingled
among yon men, and have learnt to whom they belong,
and whither they are bound. There is, I think,
no chance that they will proceed to any actual
violence against their prisoners. For three men to
attempt them at this moment, were little else than
madness; for they are good men of war, and have,
as such, placed sentinels to give the alarm when
any one approaches. But I trust soon to gather
such a force, as may act in defiance of all their precautions;
Ivanhoe |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from What is Man? by Mark Twain: will go naked to clothe her child; she will starve that it may
have food; suffer torture to save it from pain; die that it may
live. She takes a living PLEASURE in making these sacrifices.
SHE DOES IT FOR THAT REWARD--that self-approval, that
contentment, that peace, that comfort. SHE WOULD DO IT FOR YOUR
CHILD IF SHE COULD GET THE SAME PAY.
Y.M. This is an infernal philosophy of yours.
O.M. It isn't a philosophy, it is a fact.
Y.M. Of course you must admit that there are some acts which--
O.M. No. There is NO act, large or small, fine or mean,
which springs from any motive but the one--the necessity of
What is Man? |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Alkahest by Honore de Balzac: her apparent confidence, and she resolved to break through her present
system of silence and resignation. She brought about one of those
little scenes in which husband and wife are on an equal footing; less
timid at such a moment, she dared to ask Balthazar the reason for his
change, the motive of his constant seclusion. The Flemish husband
frowned, and replied:--
"My dear, you could not understand it."
Soon after, however, Josephine insisted on being told the secret,
gently complaining that she was not allowed to share all the thoughts
of one whose life she shared.
"Very well, since it interests you so much," said Balthazar, taking
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