| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Last War: A World Set Free by H. G. Wells: certain lucidity, but there is not a country town in France where
there is not a Leblanc or so to be found about two o'clock in its
principal cafe. It's just that he isn't complicated or
Super-Mannish, or any of those things that has made all he has
done possible. But in happier times, don't you think, Wilhelm, he
would have remained just what his father was, a successful
epicier, very clean, very accurate, very honest. And on holidays
he would have gone out with Madame Leblanc and her knitting in a
punt with a jar of something gentle and have sat under a large
reasonable green-lined umbrella and fished very neatly and
successfully for gudgeon....'
The Last War: A World Set Free |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Soul of the Far East by Percival Lowell: constituents of the clan. In the tenure of its real estate, the
Chinese family much resembles the Russian Mir. But so far as his
personal state is concerned, the Chinese son outslaves the Slav.
For he lives at home, under the immediate control of the paternal
will--in the most complete of serfdoms, a filial one. Even existence
becomes a communal affair. From the family mansion, or set of
mansions, in which all its members dwell, to the family mausoleum,
to which they will all eventually be borne, a man makes his life
journey in strict company with his kin.
A man's life is thus but an undivisible fraction of the family life.
How essentially so will appear from the following slight sketch of it.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Enemies of Books by William Blades: the question arose as to what could be done with them.
These blue-books, which had cost the nation many thousands
of pounds, were positively sold to the paper mills as wastepaper,
and nearly 100 tons weight were carted away at about L3 per ton.
It is difficult to believe, although positively true,
that so great an act of vandalism could have been perpetrated,
even in a Government office. It is true that no demand existed
for some of them, but it is equally true that in numerous cases,
especially in the early specifications of the steam engine and
printing machine, the want of them has caused great disappointment.
To add a climax to the story, many of the "pulped" specifications
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