| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Koran: know not.
And they said, 'Whatever thou dost bring us as a sign to enchant
us therewith, yet will we not believe in thee.'
Then we sent upon them the flood and the locusts and the lice and
the frogs and the blood,- signs detailed; but they were big with pride
and were a people who did sin.
And when there fell upon them the plague, they said, 'O Moses!
call upon thy Lord for us, as He has covenanted with thee; verily,
if thou dost remove the plague from us, we will believe in thee; and
we will assuredly send with thee the children of Israel.' But when
we removed from them the plague until the appointed time which they
The Koran |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Criminal Sociology by Enrico Ferri: daily application.
Since the deterrent efficacy of punishments in general, including
the death penalty, is quite insignificant for the born criminals,
who are insensible and improvident, the rare cases of execution
will certainly not cure the disease of society. Only the
slaughter of several hundred murderers every year would have
a sensible result in the way of artificial selection; but
that is more easily said than done. And I imagine that, at normal
periods, in no modern and civilised State would a series of daily
executions of the capital sentence be possible. Public opinion
would not endure it, and a reaction would soon set in.[22]
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia by Samuel Johnson: meeting by chance or brought together by artifice, exchange
glances, reciprocate civilities, go home and dream of one another.
Having little to divert attention or diversify thought, they find
themselves uneasy when they are apart, and therefore conclude that
they shall be happy together. They marry, and discover what
nothing but voluntary blindness before had concealed; they wear out
life in altercations, and charge Nature with cruelty.
"From those early marriages proceeds likewise the rivalry of
parents and children: the son is eager to enjoy the world before
the father is willing to forsake it, and there is hardly room at
once for two generations. The daughter begins to bloom before the
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