| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift: expedient was put into his head by the famous Salmanaazor, a
native of the island Formosa, who came from thence to London,
above twenty years ago, and in conversation told my friend, that
in his country, when any young person happened to be put to
death, the executioner sold the carcass to persons of quality, as
a prime dainty; and that, in his time, the body of a plump girl
of fifteen, who was crucified for an attempt to poison the
Emperor, was sold to his imperial majesty's prime minister of
state, and other great mandarins of the court in joints from the
gibbet, at four hundred crowns. Neither indeed can I deny, that
if the same use were made of several plump young girls in this
A Modest Proposal |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Memories and Portraits by Robert Louis Stevenson: thoughtful, Bible-quoting ploughman. A week or two in such a place
as Suffolk leaves the Scotchman gasping. It seems incredible that
within the boundaries of his own island a class should have been
thus forgotten. Even the educated and intelligent, who hold our
own opinions and speak in our own words, yet seem to hold them with
a difference or, from another reason, and to speak on all things
with less interest and conviction. The first shock of English
society is like a cold plunge. It is possible that the Scot comes
looking for too much, and to be sure his first experiment will be
in the wrong direction. Yet surely his complaint is grounded;
surely the speech of Englishmen is too often lacking in generous
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Bab:A Sub-Deb, Mary Roberts Rinehart by Mary Roberts Rinehart: turned more substantile intellects than yours."
He then swiched on the hall lights from the top of the stairs and
desended. I could but wait at the top, fearing at each moment a shot
would ring out, as a Spy's business is such as not to stop at Murder.
My father unlocked the safe and looked in it. Then he closed it
again and disapeared into the back of the house. How agonising were
the moments that ensued! He did not return, and at last, feeling
that he had met a terrable Death, I went down.
I went through the fatal dining room to the pantrey and there found
him not only alive, but putting on a plate some cold roast beef and
two apples.
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