| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Reason Discourse by Rene Descartes: had undergone the scrutiny of reason. I firmly believed that in this way I
should much better succeed in the conduct of my life, than if I built only
upon old foundations, and leaned upon principles which, in my youth, I had
taken upon trust. For although I recognized various difficulties in this
undertaking, these were not, however, without remedy, nor once to be
compared with such as attend the slightest reformation in public affairs.
Large bodies, if once overthrown, are with great difficulty set up again,
or even kept erect when once seriously shaken, and the fall of such is
always disastrous. Then if there are any imperfections in the
constitutions of states (and that many such exist the diversity of
constitutions is alone sufficient to assure us), custom has without doubt
Reason Discourse |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Pool of Blood in the Pastor's Study by Grace Isabel Colbron and Augusta Groner: the rectory and whose fidelity was known. The girl Liska was
scarcely eighteen, and her round childish face and big eyes dimmed
with tears, corroborated her story. When they had told Muller all
they knew, the detective sat stroking, his chin, and looking
thoughtfully at the floor. Then he raised his head and said, in a
tone of calm friendliness: "Well, good friends, this will do for
to-night. Now, if you will kindly give me a bite to eat and a
glass of some light wine, I'd be very thankful. I have had no
food since early this morning."
The housekeeper and the maid disappeared, and Janos went to the
stable to harness the Count's trap.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Time Machine by H. G. Wells: eager cries of astonishment, like children, but like children
they would soon stop examining me and wander away after some
other toy. The dinner and my conversational beginnings ended, I
noted for the first time that almost all those who had surrounded
me at first were gone. It is odd, too, how speedily I came to
disregard these little people. I went out through the portal
into the sunlit world again as soon as my hunger was satisfied.
I was continually meeting more of these men of the future, who
would follow me a little distance, chatter and laugh about me,
and, having smiled and gesticulated in a friendly way, leave me
again to my own devices.
The Time Machine |
