| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe: and OEgipans, over which Usher would sit dreaming for hours. His
chief delight, however, was found in the perusal of an
exceedingly rare and curious book in quarto Gothic--the manual of
a forgotten church--the Vigiliae Mortuorum Secundum Chorum Ecclesiae
Maguntinae.
I could not help thinking of the wild ritual of this work,
and of its probable influence upon the hypochondriac, when, one
evening, having informed me abruptly that the lady Madeline was
no more, he stated his intention of preserving her corpse for a
fortnight, (previously to its final interment), in one of the
numerous vaults within the main walls of the building. The
The Fall of the House of Usher |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Ivanhoe by Walter Scott: opposed to each other on different sides of the
stage. He does not recollect that there was
any attempt to contrast the two races in their
habits and sentiments; and indeed it was obvious,
that history was violated by introducing
the Saxons still existing as a high-minded and
martial race of nobles.
They did, however, survive as a people, and
some of the ancient Saxon families possessed
wealth and power, although they were exceptions
to the humble condition of the race in
Ivanhoe |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Economist by Xenophon: envy or admire him. But if the sight of him is followed by a stir of
movement, if there come upon[13] each labourer fresh spirit, with
mutual rivaly and keen ambition, drawing out the finest qualities of
each,[14] of him I should say, Behold a man of kingly disposition. And
this, if I mistake not, is the quality of greatest import in every
operation which needs the instrumentality of man; but most of all,
perhaps, in agriculture. Not that I would maintain that it is a thing
to be lightly learnt by a glance of the eye, or hearsay fashion, as a
tale that is told. Far from it, I assert that he who is to have this
power has need of education; he must have at bottom a good natural
disposition; and, what is greatest of all, he must be himself a god-
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