| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Ball at Sceaux by Honore de Balzac: "It is needful to ascertain, my dear, whether the man of your choice
is the son of a peer of France," the venerable gentleman retorted
sarcastically.
Emilie was silent for a moment. She presently raised her head, looked
at her father, and said somewhat anxiously, "Are not the
Longuevilles----?"
"They became extinct in the person of the old Duc de Rostein-Limbourg,
who perished on the scaffold in 1793. He was the last representative
of the last and younger branch."
"But, papa, there are some very good families descended from bastards.
The history of France swarms with princes bearing the bar sinister on
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Voice of the City by O. Henry: down, cursing, in the grass. There was nothing to
see, nothing to drink, nothing to do. In the dark we
had no way of telling friend or foe except by feeling
the noses of 'em. I brought along me last winter
overcoat, me toothbrush, some quinine pills and the
red quilt off the bed in me flat. Three times during
the night somebody rolled on me quilt and stuck his
knees against the Adam's apple of me. And three
times I judged his character by running me hand over
his face, and three times I rose up and kicked the in-
truder down the hill to the gravelly walk below. And
The Voice of the City |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from On the Duty of Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau: to sustain the unjust government which makes the war;
is applauded by those whose own act and authority he disregards
and sets at naught; as if the state were penitent to that
degree that it hired one to scourge it while it sinned, but
not to that degree that it left off sinning for a moment.
Thus, under the name of Order and Civil Government, we are
all made at last to pay homage to and support our own meanness.
After the first blush of sin comes its indifference; and from
immoral it becomes, as it were, unmoral, and not quite unnecessary
to that life which we have made.
The broadest and most prevalent error requires the most
On the Duty of Civil Disobedience |
