| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Democracy In America, Volume 2 by Alexis de Toqueville: that nothing is more political in a nation than its civil
legislation.]
It may perhaps not be without utility to show how these
changes which take place in family relations, are closely
connected with the social and political revolution which is
approaching its consummation under our own observation. There
are certain great social principles, which a people either
introduces everywhere, or tolerates nowhere. In countries which
are aristocratically constituted with all the gradations of rank,
the government never makes a direct appeal to the mass of the
governed: as men are united together, it is enough to lead the
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Circular Staircase by Mary Roberts Rinehart: came with some hesitation, he went on, to the fact that he had
been further instructed to ask me to relinquish my lease on
Sunnyside, as it was Mrs. Armstrong's desire to come directly
there.
I was aghast.
"Here!" I said. "Surely you are mistaken, Mr. Harton. I should
think, after--what happened here only a few days ago, she would
never wish to come back."
"Nevertheless," he replied, "she is most anxious to come. This
is what she says. `Use every possible means to have Sunnyside
vacated. Must go there at once.'"
The Circular Staircase |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Little Britain by Washington Irving: himself too advanced in life to undertake sea-voyages.
Little Britain has occasionally its factions and divisions, and
party spirit ran very high at one time in consequence of two
rival "Burial Societies" being set up in the place. One held its
meeting at the Swan and Horse Shoe, and was patronized by the
cheesemonger; the other at the Cock and Crown, under the
auspices of the apothecary; it is needless to say that the latter
was the most flourishing. I have passed an evening or two at
each, and have acquired much valuable information, as to the
best mode of being buried, the comparative merits of
churchyards, together with divers hints on the subject of
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