| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Criminal Sociology by Enrico Ferri: on the leaves of books lent to them to read, or by knocking on
their walls according to a conventional alphabet, or by writing in
the sand, or by using the drains as telephonic receivers, as was
done in the cellular prisons of Mazas, Milan, &c. Plain proofs of
this may be found in Lombroso's ``Les Palimpsestes des Prisons.''
``The public, and even well-informed persons, honestly believe
that the cellular prison is a dumb and paralytic thing, without
tongue or hands, simply because the law has ordered silence and
inactivity. But as no decree, however vigorous, can counteract
the nature of things, so this organism speaks, moves, occasionally
wounds or slays, in spite of all the decrees. Only, as always
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Man against the Sky by Edwin Arlington Robinson: Though he may scarcely give a Fool an exit
But we mark how he sees in everything
A law that, given we flout it once too often,
Brings fire and iron down on our naked heads.
To me it looks as if the power that made him,
For fear of giving all things to one creature,
Left out the first, -- faith, innocence, illusion,
Whatever 'tis that keeps us out o' Bedlam, --
And thereby, for his too consuming vision,
Empowered him out of nature; though to see him,
You'd never guess what's going on inside him.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Letters of Two Brides by Honore de Balzac: will go to the King and will ask from him the grant of my dignities
and property, my office and titles. He will perhaps hesitate, and may
treat you to some regal scowls; but you must tell him that you are
loved by Marie Heredia, and that Marie can marry none but a Duc de
Soria. This will make the King radiant. It is the immense fortune of
the Heredia family which alone has stood between him and the
accomplishment of my ruin. Your proposal will seem to him, therefore,
to deprive me of a last resource, and he will gladly hand over to you
my spoils.
You will then marry Marie. The secret of the mutual love against which
you fought was no secret to me, and I have prepared the old Count to
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