| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from First Inaugural Address by Abraham Lincoln: that such decisions must be binding, in any case, upon the parties
to a suit, as to the object of that suit, while they are also entitled
to very high respect and consideration in all parallel cases by all other
departments of the government. And while it is obviously possible that
such decision may be erroneous in any given case, still the evil effect
following it, being limited to that particular case, with the chance that
it may be overruled and never become a precedent for other cases,
can better be borne than could the evils of a different practice.
At the same time, the candid citizen must confess that if the policy
of the government, upon vital questions affecting the whole people,
is to be irrevocably fixed by decisions of the Supreme Court,
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Forged Coupon by Leo Tolstoy: lection of having done the thing so skilfully, so
cleverly, that nobody-would ever discover it, and
he would not therefore be prevented from mur-
dering other people in the same way. Sitting in
the public-house and having his tea, he looked at
the people around him with the same thought how
he should murder them. In the evening he called
at a carter's, a man from his village, to spend the
night at his house. The carter was not in. He
said he would wait for him, and in the meanwhile
began talking to the carter's wife. But when she
The Forged Coupon |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Chouans by Honore de Balzac: "Let us leave this room," said Mademoiselle de Verneuil, catching
sight of a corner of Madame du Gua's gown, and rising. But the wish to
reduce her rival to despair was too strong, and she made no further
motion to go.
"Do you mean to drive me to hell?" cried the marquis, seizing her hand
and pressing it violently.
"Did you not drive me to hell five days ago? are you not leaving me at
this very moment uncertain whether your love is sincere or not?"
"But how do I know whether your revenge may not lead you to obtain my
life to tarnish it, instead of killing me?"
"Ah! you do not love me! you think of yourself and not of me!" she
The Chouans |
