| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from A Book of Remarkable Criminals by H. B. Irving: by an inspector of the insurance company who it was that had
helped him to double up the body sent from New York and pack it
into the trunk. He replied that he had done it alone, having
learned the trick when studying medicine in Michigan. The
inspector recollected that the body when removed from Callowhill
Street had been straight and rigid. He asked Holmes what trick
he had learnt in the course of his medical studies by which it
was possible to re-stiffen a body once the rigor mortis had
been broken. To this Holmes made no reply. But he realised his
mistake, and a few weeks later volunteered a second statement.
He now said that Pitezel, in a fit of depression, aggravated by
A Book of Remarkable Criminals |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Deserted Woman by Honore de Balzac: you bid me; the oath of fidelity which I swear to you shall only
be absolved by death. Ah! take my life, unless indeed you do not
fear to carry a remorse all through your own----"
When the man returned from his errand, M. de Nueil asked him with whom
he left the note?
"I gave it to Mme. la Vicomtesse herself, sir; she was in her carriage
and just about to start."
"For the town?"
"I don't think so, sir. Mme. la Vicomtesse had post-horses."
"Ah! then she is going away," said the Baron.
"Yes, sir," the man answered.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Myths and Myth-Makers by John Fiske: his son's head has no historical value whatever. In spite of
the wrath of unlearned but patriotic Swiss, especially of
those of the cicerone class, this conclusion is forced upon us
as soon as we begin to study the legend in accordance with the
canons of modern historical criticism. It is useless to point
to Tell's lime-tree, standing to-day in the centre of the
market-place at Altdorf, or to quote for our confusion his
crossbow preserved in the arsenal at Zurich, as unimpeachable
witnesses to the truth of the story. It is in vain that we are
told, "The bricks are alive to this day to testify to it;
therefore, deny it not." These proofs are not more valid than
Myths and Myth-Makers |
