| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from My Antonia by Willa Cather: made a start, so that the fresh growth would not be mixed
with the dead stand of last year. Those light, swift fires,
running about the country, seemed a part of the same kindling
that was in the air.
The Shimerdas were in their new log house by then.
The neighbours had helped them to build it in March. It stood
directly in front of their old cave, which they used as a cellar.
The family were now fairly equipped to begin their struggle
with the soil. They had four comfortable rooms to live in,
a new windmill--bought on credit--a chicken-house and poultry.
Mrs. Shimerda had paid grandfather ten dollars for a milk cow,
 My Antonia |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain: many -- very, very great many. And you never can be
sorry for the trouble you took to learn them; for knowl-
edge is worth more than anything there is in the world;
it's what makes great men and good men; you'll be a
great man and a good man yourself, some day, Thomas,
and then you'll look back and say, It's all owing to the
precious Sunday-school privileges of my boyhood -- it's
all owing to my dear teachers that taught me to learn
-- it's all owing to the good superintendent, who en-
couraged me, and watched over me, and gave me
a beautiful Bible -- a splendid elegant Bible -- to keep
 The Adventures of Tom Sawyer |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx: One section of the French Legitimists and "Young England"
exhibited this spectacle.
In pointing out that their mode of exploitation was different to
that of the bourgeoisie, the feudalists forget that they
exploited under circumstances and conditions that were quite
different, and that are now antiquated. In showing that, under
their rule, the modern proletariat never existed, they forget
that the modern bourgeoisie is the necessary offspring of their
own form of society.
For the rest, so little do they conceal the reactionary
character of their criticism that their chief accusation against
 The Communist Manifesto |