| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Red Inn by Honore de Balzac: apprehension, much like the flashes of sentiment which constitute
taste. Let us vote."
"Let us vote!" cried all my guests.
I have each two balls, one white, one red. The white, symbol of
virginity, was to forbid the marriage; the red ball sanctioned it. I
myself abstained from voting, out of delicacy.
My friends were seventeen in number; nine was therefore the majority.
Each man put his ball into the wicker basket with a narrow throat,
used to hold the numbered balls when card-players draw for their
places at pool. We were all roused to a more or less keen curiosity;
for this balloting to clarify morality was certainly original.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from At the Earth's Core by Edgar Rice Burroughs: convinced me of my error. Like a flash the thought
came to me of the marvelous opportunity these sleeping
reptiles offered as a means of eluding the watchfulness
of our captors and the Sagoth guards.
Hastening back to Perry where he pored over a musty pile of,
to me, meaningless hieroglyphics, I explained my plan to him.
To my surprise he was horrified.
"It would be murder, David," he cried.
"Murder to kill a reptilian monster?" I asked in astonishment.
"Here they are not monsters, David," he replied.
"Here they are the dominant race--we are the 'monsters'--the
At the Earth's Core |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Criminal Sociology by Enrico Ferri: lead to an order for imprisonment for life. In the case of less
serious crimes, such as rape, theft, wounding, swindling, &c.,
from two to four relapses should be necessary before the habitual
criminal is sentenced to such imprisonment.
These ideas are approximately carried out, especially in the
countries which, having made no great advance in the criminal
sciences, meet with less of pedantic opposition to practical
reforms.
Thus we find that France, after the proposals of Michaux, Petit,
and Migneret, and especially after the advocacy of M. Reinach,
followed by several publications of a like kind, agreed to the law
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