| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Lost Continent by Edgar Rice Burroughs: weather when under control; but without her screen
generators she was almost helpless, since she could not fly,
and, if submerged, could not rise to the surface.
All these defects have been remedied in later models; but
the knowledge did not help us any that day aboard the slowly
settling Coldwater, with an angry sea roaring beneath, a
tempest raging out of the west, and 30d only a few knots
astern.
To cross thirty or one hundred seventy-five has been, as you
know, the direst calamity that could befall a naval
commander. Court-martial and degradation follow swiftly,
Lost Continent |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Common Sense by Thomas Paine: to every miscreant, who can tamper successfully with the follies
either of age or infancy.
The most plausible plea, which hath ever been offered in favour of
hereditary succession, is, that it preserves a nation from civil wars;
and were this true, it would be weighty; whereas, it is the most
barefaced falsity ever imposed upon mankind. The whole history of
England disowns the fact. Thirty kings and two minors have reigned
in that distracted kingdom since the conquest, in which time there
have been (including the Revolution) no less than eight civil wars
and nineteen rebellions. Wherefore instead of making for peace, it
makes against it, and destroys the very foundation it seems to stand on.
Common Sense |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe: declared he had eight hundred and seventy-two moidores not
distributed, which he acknowledged to my account: as to the king's
part, that refunded nothing.
There was a letter of my partner's, congratulating me very
affectionately upon my being alive, giving me an account how the
estate was improved, and what it produced a year; with the
particulars of the number of squares, or acres that it contained,
how planted, how many slaves there were upon it: and making two-
and-twenty crosses for blessings, told me he had said so many AVE
MARIAS to thank the Blessed Virgin that I was alive; inviting me
very passionately to come over and take possession of my own, and
Robinson Crusoe |
