| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Magic of Oz by L. Frank Baum: "What do YOU think, Rango?" he asked.
"Send these mixed beasts away, Your Majesty," replied the Gray Ape.
"They are mischief-makers."
"Don't do that--don't do that!" cried the Unicorn, nervously. "The
stranger said he would tell us what to do. Let him tell us, then.
Are we fools, not to heed a warning?"
Gugu the King turned to Ruggedo.
"Speak, Stranger," he commanded.
"Well," said the Nome, "it's this way: The Land of Oz is a fine
country. The people of Oz have many good things--houses with soft
beds, all sorts of nice-tasting food, pretty clothes, lovely jewels,
The Magic of Oz |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Gobseck by Honore de Balzac: discount, when no man is my master, and I only pay seven francs in the
shape of taxes?
" 'The first bill for a thousand francs was presented by a young
fellow, a smart buck with a spangled waistcoat, and an eyeglass, and a
tilbury and an English horse, and all the rest of it. The bill bore
the signature of one of the prettiest women in Paris, married to a
Count, a great landowner. Now, how came that Countess to put her name
to a bill of exchange, legally not worth the paper it was written
upon, but practically very good business; for these women, poor
things, are afraid of the scandal that a protested bill makes in a
family, and would give themselves away in payment sooner than fail? I
Gobseck |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Battle of the Books by Jonathan Swift: tenderness, and with the utmost deference to that great and
profound majority which is of another sentiment.
And yet the curious may please to observe, how much the genius of a
nation is liable to alter in half an age. I have heard it affirmed
for certain by some very odd people, that the contrary opinion was
even in their memories as much in vogue as the other is now; and
that a project for the abolishing of Christianity would then have
appeared as singular, and been thought as absurd, as it would be at
this time to write or discourse in its defence.
Therefore I freely own, that all appearances are against me. The
system of the Gospel, after the fate of other systems, is generally
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