| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Snow Image by Nathaniel Hawthorne: night I mean to burn the manuscripts, and commit the fiend to his
retribution in the flames."
"Burn your tales!" repeated I, startled at the desperation of the
idea.
"Even so," said the author, despondingly. "You cannot conceive
what an effect the composition of these tales has had on me. I
have become ambitious of a bubble, and careless of solid
reputation. I am surrounding myself with shadows, which bewilder
me, by aping the realities of life. They have drawn me aside from
the beaten path of the world, and led me into a strange sort of
solitude,--a solitude in the midst of men,-where nobody wishes
The Snow Image |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from A Horse's Tale by Mark Twain: "Fast?"
"Don't ask foolish questions. It was an awful pace. For four
hours nothing happened, and not a word said, except that now and
then she said, 'Keep it up, Boy, keep it up, sweetheart; we'll save
him!' I kept it up. Well, when the dark shut down, in the rugged
hills, that poor little chap had been tearing around in the saddle
all day, and I noticed by the slack knee-pressure that she was
tired and tottery, and I got dreadfully afraid; but every time I
tried to slow down and let her go to sleep, so I could stop, she
hurried me up again; and so, sure enough, at last over she went!
"Ah, that was a fix to be in I for she lay there and didn't stir,
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Democracy In America, Volume 1 by Alexis de Toqueville: as soon as they were conscious of the evil; they amended their
laws, and they saved their country.
Chapter VIII: The Federal Constitution - Part V
Advantages Of The Federal System In General, And Its Special
Utility In America
Happiness and freedom of small nations - Power of great nations -
Great empires favorable to the growth of civilization - Strength
often the first element of national prosperity - Aim of the
Federal system to unite the twofold advantages resulting from a
small and from a large territory -Advantages derived by the
United States from this system - The law adapts itself to the
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