| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Psychology of Revolution by Gustave le Bon: among the favourites of fortune. The aristocracy encouraged
dissertations on the social contract, the rights of man, and the
equality of citizens. At the theatre it applauded plays which
criticised privileges, the arbitrariness and the incapacity of
men in high places, and abuses of all kinds.
As soon as men lose confidence in the foundations of the mental
framework which guides their conduct they feel at first uneasy
and then discontented. All classes felt their old motives of
action gradually disappearing. Things that had seemed sacred for
centuries were now sacred no longer.
The censorious spirit of the nobility and of the writers of the
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Garden Party by Katherine Mansfield: And there I'd sit all day, quiet as quiet--the customers never knew. Only
now and again I'd take my peep from under the table-cloth.
...But one day I managed to get a pair of scissors and--would you believe
it, madam? I cut off all my hair; snipped it off all in bits, like the
little monkey I was. Grandfather was furious! He caught hold of the
tongs--I shall never forget it--grabbed me by the hand and shut my fingers
in them. "That'll teach you!" he said. It was a fearful burn. I've got
the mark of it to-day.
...Well, you see, madam, he'd taken such pride in my hair. He used to sit
me up on the counter, before the customers came, and do it something
beautiful--big, soft curls and waved over the top. I remember the
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Wife, et al by Anton Chekhov: "That's a story from a different opera," said Burkin.
"After his wife's death," Ivan Ivanovitch went on, after thinking
for half a minute, "my brother began looking out for an estate
for himself. Of course, you may look about for five years and yet
end by making a mistake, and buying something quite different
from what you have dreamed of. My brother Nikolay bought through
an agent a mortgaged estate of three hundred and thirty acres,
with a house for the family, with servants' quarters, with a
park, but with no orchard, no gooseberry-bushes, and no
duck-pond; there was a river, but the water in it was the colour
of coffee, because on one side of the estate there was a
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