| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Damnation of Theron Ware by Harold Frederic: you and I have been drifting apart--or no, that doesn't
express it--simply rushing away from each other.
It only began last spring, and now the space between us
is so wide that we are worse than complete strangers.
For strangers at least don't hate each other, and I've had
a good many occasions lately to see that you positively do
hate me--"
"What grotesque absurdity" interposed Theron, impatiently.
"No, it isn't absurdity; it's gospel truth," retorted Alice.
"And--don't interrupt me--there have been times, too,
when I have had to ask myself if I wasn't getting almost
The Damnation of Theron Ware |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Ancient Regime by Charles Kingsley: halter and the sword. Such a Government can never take itself for
granted, because it knows that it is not taken for granted by the
people. It never can possess the quiet assurance, the courteous
dignity, without swagger, yet without hesitation, which belongs to
hereditary legislators; by which term is to be understood, not
merely kings, not merely noblemen, but every citizen of a free
nation, however democratic, who has received from his forefathers
the right, the duty, and the example of self-government.
Such was the political and social state of the Ancien Regime, not
only in France, but if we are to trust (as we must trust) M. de
Tocqueville, in almost every nation in Europe, except Britain.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Blix by Frank Norris: and shut off by a great Japanese screen. He was in his shirt-
sleeves, his hair was tumbled, his fingers ink-stained, and his
face a little pale.
Since late in the evening he had been steadily writing. Three
chapters of "In Defiance of Authority" were done, and he was now
at work on the fourth. The day after the excursion to the
Presidio--that wonderful event which seemed to Condy to mark the
birthday of some new man within him--the idea had suddenly
occurred to him that Captain Jack's story of the club of the
exiles, the boom restaurant, and the filibustering expedition was
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