| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad: near a river, sinister and ugly like a colossal mortuary for the
socially drowned.
He was no good in discussion, not because any amount of argument
could shake his faith, but because the mere fact of hearing another
voice disconcerted him painfully, confusing his thoughts at once -
these thoughts that for so many years, in a mental solitude more
barren than a waterless desert, no living voice had ever combatted,
commented, or approved.
No one interrupted him now, and he made again the confession of his
faith, mastering him irresistible and complete like an act of
grace: the secret of fate discovered in the material side of life;
The Secret Agent |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Tales of the Klondyke by Jack London: a lamb, an' 'ere you be, lost all o' your top 'amper an' out o'
your reckonin', run me foul an' goin' to rake me into 'ell-fire.
You bloomin' old pirut! You--"
Jim Cardegee loosed the strings of his profanity and fairly outdid
himself. Jacob Kent brought out a stool that he might enjoy it in
comfort. Having exhausted all the possible combinations of his
vocabulary, the sailor quieted down to hard thinking, his eyes
constantly gauging the progress of the sun, which tore up the
eastern slope of the heavens with unseemly haste. His dogs,
surprised that they had not long since been put to harness,
crowded around him. His helplessness appealed to the brutes.
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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: former in the House of Representatives. Thus, if the minority of
the nation preponderates in the Senate,. it may paralyze the
decisions of the majority represented in the other House, which
is contrary to the spirit of constitutional
government.
[Footnote n: Every ten years Congress fixes anew the number of
representatives which each State is to furnish. The total number
was 69 in 1789, and 240 in 1833. (See "American Almanac," 1834,
p. 194.) The Constitution decided that there should not be more
than one representative for every 30,000 persons; but no minimum
was fixed on. The Congress has not thought fit to augment the
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