| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Les Miserables by Victor Hugo: doubled in the arrondissement of M. sur M.; and M. de Villele called
attention to the fact in the rostrum, in the month of February, 1827.
CHAPTER II
IN WHICH THE READER WILL PERUSE TWO VERSES, WHICH ARE OF THE
DEVIL'S COMPOSITION, POSSIBLY
Before proceeding further, it will be to the purpose to narrate
in some detail, a singular occurrence which took place at about the
same epoch, in Montfermeil, and which is not lacking in coincidence
with certain conjectures of the indictment.
There exists in the region of Montfermeil a very ancient superstition,
which is all the more curious and all the more precious, because a popular
Les Miserables |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Black Tulip by Alexandre Dumas: "Yes, the prize for the black tulip."
Cornelius's cheek flushed, his whole frame trembled, and the
cold sweat stood on his brow.
"Alas! sir," he said, "all these good people will be as
unfortunate as myself, for they will not see the solemnity
which they have come to witness, or at least they will see
it incompletely."
"What is it you mean to say?"
"I mean to say." replied Cornelius, throwing himself back in
the carriage, "that the black tulip will not be found,
except by one whom I know."
The Black Tulip |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Human Drift by Jack London: The record of our own American Civil War need scarcely be
recalled.
And man has been destroyed in other ways than by the sword.
Flood, famine, pestilence and murder are potent factors in
reducing population--in making room. As Mr. Charles Woodruff, in
his "Expansion of Races," has instanced: In 1886, when the dikes
of the Yellow River burst, 7,000,000 people were drowned. The
failure of crops in Ireland, in 1848, caused 1,000,000 deaths.
The famines in India of 1896-7 and 1899-1900 lessened the
population by 21,000,000. The T'ai'ping rebellion and the
Mohammedan rebellion, combined with the famine of 1877-78,
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