| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Egmont by Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe: Alva. You utter words to which I ought not to listen;--I, too, am a
foreigner.
Egmont. That they are spoken in your presence is a sufficient proof that
they have no reference to you.
Alva. Be that as it may, I would rather not hear them from you. The king
sent me here in the hope that I should obtain the support of the nobles. The
king wills, and will have his will obeyed. After profound deliberation, the
king at length discerns what course will best promote the welfare of the
people; matters cannot be permitted to go on as heretofore; it is the king's
intention to limit their power for their own good; if necessary, to force
upon them their salvation: to sacrifice the more dangerous burghers in
Egmont |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Chita: A Memory of Last Island by Lafcadio Hearn: strive against men, but to use his science against death. After
the passing of that huge shock, which left all the imposing and
splendid fabric of Southern feudalism wrecked forever, his
profession stood him in good stead;--he found himself not only
able to supply those personal wants he cared to satisfy, but also
to alleviate the misery of many whom he had known in days of
opulence;--the princely misery that never doffed its smiling
mask, though living in secret, from week to week, on bread and
orange-leaf tea;--the misery that affected condescension in
accepting an invitation to dine,--staring at the face of a watch
(refused by the Mont-de-Piete) with eyes half blinded by
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Main Street by Sinclair Lewis: inherent in isolation.
But a village in a country which is taking pains to become
altogether standardized and pure, which aspires to succeed
Victorian England as the chief mediocrity of the world, is no
longer merely provincial, no longer downy and restful in its
leaf-shadowed ignorance. It is a force seeking to dominate
the earth, to drain the hills and sea of color, to set Dante at
boosting Gopher Prairie, and to dress the high gods in
Klassy Kollege Klothes. Sure of itself, it bullies other civilizations,
as a traveling salesman in a brown derby conquers the
wisdom of China and tacks advertisements of cigarettes over
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