| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Twice Told Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne: passing a second time through the perils of youth. Think what a
sin and shame it would be, if, with your peculiar advantages, you
should not become patterns of virtue and wisdom to all the young
people of the age!"
The doctor's four venerable friends made him no answer, except by
a feeble and tremulous laugh; so very ridiculous was the idea
that, knowing how closely repentance treads behind the steps of
error, they should ever go astray again.
"Drink, then," said the doctor, bowing: "I rejoice that I have so
well selected the subjects of my experiment."
With palsied hands, they raised the glasses to their lips. The
Twice Told Tales |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift: black cattle, or swine, and my reason is, that these children are
seldom the fruits of marriage, a circumstance not much regarded
by our savages, therefore, one male will be sufficient to serve
four females. That the remaining hundred thousand may, at a year
old, be offered in sale to the persons of quality and fortune,
through the kingdom, always advising the mother to let them suck
plentifully in the last month, so as to render them plump, and
fat for a good table. A child will make two dishes at an
entertainment for friends, and when the family dines alone, the
fore or hind quarter will make a reasonable dish, and seasoned
with a little pepper or salt, will be very good boiled on the
A Modest Proposal |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Bride of Lammermoor by Walter Scott: guests requested her permission to retire to their apartments.
The Marquis occupied the chamber of dais, which, in every house
above the rank of a mere cottage, was kept sacred for such high
occasions as the present. The modern finishing with plaster was
then unknown, and tapestry was confined to the houses of the
nobility and superior gentry. The cooper, therefore, who was a
man of some vanity, as well as some wealth, had imitated the
fashion observed by the inferior landholders and clergy, who
usually ornamented their state apartments with hangings of a sort
of stamped leather, manufactured in the Netherlands, garnished
with trees and aminals executed in copper foil, and with many a
The Bride of Lammermoor |
