| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Tono Bungay by H. G. Wells: preoccupation in life was, I believe, to make my uncle laugh, and
when by some new nickname, some new quaintness or absurdity, she
achieved that end, she was, behind a mask of sober amazement, the
happiest woman on earth. My uncle's laugh when it did come, I
must admit was, as Baedeker says, "rewarding." It began with
gusty blowings and snortings, and opened into a clear "Ha ha!"
but in fullest development it included, in those youthful
days, falling about anyhow and doubling up tightly, and whackings
of the stomach, and tears and cries of anguish. I never in my
life heard my uncle laugh to his maximum except at her; he was
commonly too much in earnest for that, and he didn't laugh much
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Psychology of Revolution by Gustave le Bon: Royalist, it abandoned the monarchy; humanitarian, it allowed the
massacres of September; pacific, it pushed France into a
formidable war, thus showing that a weak Government always ends
by bringing ruin upon its country.
The history of the two previous revolutionary Assemblies proves
once more to what point events carry within them their inevitable
consequences. They constitute a train of necessities of which we
can sometimes choose the first, but which then evolve without
consulting us. We are free to make a decision, but powerless to
avert its consequences.
The first measures of the Constituent Assembly were rational and
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Puck of Pook's Hill by Rudyard Kipling: back-aspect was dreader than his front, and a howlet lit
in, and screeched at the horns of him.
"'If you'd keep out the Devil, shut the door," he
whispered. "And that's another false proverb, Hal, for I
can hear your tower-door opening."
"'I locked it. Who a-plague has another key, then?" I said.
"'All the congregation, to judge by their feet," he says,
and peers into the blackness. "Still! Still, Hal! Hear 'em
grunt! That's more o' my serpentines, I'll be bound. One
- two - three - four they bear in! Faith, Andrew equips
himself like an Admiral! Twenty-four serpentines in all!"
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