| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Oakdale Affair by Edgar Rice Burroughs: from me in the jail to make the mob think he had
stolen them and not I-- he didn't know then that I was
a girl, did you?"
"It was in the jail that I first guessed; but I didn't
quite realize who you were until you said that the jewels
were yours--then I knew. The picture in the paper gave
me the first inkling that you were a girl, for you looked
so much like the one of Miss Prim. Then I commenced to
recall little things, until I wondered that I hadn't known
from the first that you were a girl; but you made a bully
boy!" and they both laughed. "And now good-by, and
The Oakdale Affair |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Walden by Henry David Thoreau: those cases to which the rule of expediency does not apply, in which
a people, as well as an individual, must do justice, cost what it
may. If I have unjustly wrested a plank from a drowning man, I must
restore it to him though I drown myself. This, according to Paley,
would be inconvenient. But he that would save his life, in such a
case, shall lose it. This people must cease to hold slaves, and to
make war on Mexico, though it cost them their existence as a people.
In their practice, nations agree with Paley; but does any one
think that Massachusetts does exactly what is right at the present
crisis?
"A drab of state, a cloth-o'-silver slut,
Walden |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz by L. Frank Baum: "Yes; for they eat of the dama-fruit, as we all do, and that keeps
them from being seen by any eye, whether human or animal."
"Does the dama-fruit grow on a low bush, and look something like a
peach?" asked the Wizard.
"Yes," was the reply.
"If it makes you invis'ble, why do you eat it?" Dorothy enquired.
"For two reasons, my dear," the woman's voice answered. "The
dama-fruit is the most delicious thing that grows, and when it makes
us invisible the bears cannot find us to eat us up. But now, good
wanderers, your luncheon is on the table, so please sit down and eat
as much as you like."
Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz |
