| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Democracy In America, Volume 1 by Alexis de Toqueville: can guide the popular decision. The poor have no adequate
conception of the wants which the higher classes of society may
feel. The sum which is scanty to the rich appears enormous to
the poor man whose wants do not extend beyond the necessaries of
life; and in his estimation the Governor of a State, with his
twelve or fifteen hundred dollars a year, is a very fortunate and
enviable being. *h If you undertake to convince him that the
representative of a great people ought to be able to maintain
some show of splendor in the eyes of foreign nations, he will
perhaps assent to your meaning; but when he reflects on his own
humble dwelling, and on the hard- earned produce of his wearisome
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Long Odds by H. Rider Haggard: flew, describing a great arch. Just as he touched the highest point of
his spring I fired. I did not dare to wait, for I saw that he would
clear the whole space and land right upon me. Without a sight, almost
without aim, I fired, as one would fire a snap shot at a snipe. The
bullet told, for I distinctly heard its thud above the rushing sound
caused by the passage of the lion through the air. Next second I was
swept to the ground (luckily I fell into a low, creeper-clad bush, which
broke the shock), and the lion was on the top of me, and the next those
great white teeth of his had met in my thigh--I heard them grate against
the bone. I yelled out in agony, for I did not feel in the least
benumbed and happy, like Dr. Livingstone--whom, by the way, I knew very
Long Odds |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Secrets of the Princesse de Cadignan by Honore de Balzac: not so much as touched him with its bat's-wing. The terrible emotion
of that fear then came to its reaction; joy almost stifled her; for
there is no human being who is not more able to endure grief than to
bear extreme felicity.
"Daniel, they have calumniated me, and you have avenged me!" she
cried, rising, and opening her arms to him.
In the profound amazement caused by these words, the roots of which
were utterly unknown to him, Daniel allowed his hand to be taken
between her beautiful hands, as the princess kissed him sacredly on
the forehead.
"But," he said, "how could you know--"
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