| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Dynamiter by Robert Louis Stevenson and Fanny Van De Grift Stevenson: inclined to be hysterical. Then he sat down beside the fire,
lit another cigar, and for some time observed me curiously in
silence.
'And now,' said he, 'that you have somewhat restored
yourself, will you be kind enough to tell me in what sort of
crime I have become a partner? Are you murderer, smuggler,
thief, or only the harmless and domestic moonlight flitter?'
I had been already shocked by his lighting a cigar without
permission, for I had not forgotten the one he threw away on
our first meeting; and now, at these explicit insults, I
resolved at once to reconquer his esteem. The judgment of
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from In Darkest England and The Way Out by General William Booth: sterling to rescue, not one or two captives, but a million, whose lot
is quite as doleful as that of the prisoners of savage kings, but who
are to be found, not in the land of the Soudan, or in the swamps of
Ashantee, or in the Mountains of the Moon, but here at our very doors?
Don't talk to me about the impossibility of raising the million.
Nothing is impossible when Britain is in earnest. All talk of
impossibility only means that you don't believe that the nation cares
to enter upon a serious campaign against the enemy at our gates.
When John Bull goes to the wars he does not count the cost. And who
dare deny that the time has fully come for a declaration of war against
the Social Evils which seem to shut out God from this our world?
In Darkest England and The Way Out |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from House of Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne: grasp! Be present at this dinner!--drink a glass or two of that
noble wine!--make your pledges in as low a whisper as you will!
--and you rise up from table virtually governor of the glorious
old State! Governor Pyncheon of Massachusetts!
And is there no potent and exhilarating cordial in a certainty like
this? It has been the grand purpose of half your lifetime to obtain
it. Now, when there needs little more than to signify your acceptance,
why do you sit so lumpishly in your great-great-grandfather's oaken
chair, as if preferring it to the gubernatorial one? We have all heard
of King Log; but, in these jostling times, one of that royal kindred
will hardly win the race for an elective chief-magistracy.
House of Seven Gables |
