| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from A Book of Remarkable Criminals by H. B. Irving: dominating force Manning might never have committed murder. But
he was a criminal before the crime, more than suspected as a
railway official of complicity in a considerable train robbery;
in his case the suggestion of murder involved only the taking of
a step farther in a criminal career. Manning suffered from
nerves almost as badly as Macbeth; after the deed he sought to
drown the prickings of terror and remorse by heavy drinking
Mrs. Manning was never troubled with any feelings of this kind;
after the murder of O'Connor the gratification of her sexual
passion seemed uppermost in her mind; and she met the
consequences of her crime fearlessly. Burke and Hare were a
A Book of Remarkable Criminals |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Don Quixote by Miquel de Cervantes: what was inscribed on the trophy of Roland's armour-
These let none move
Who dareth not his might with Roland prove."
"That's the very thing," said Sancho; "and if it was not that we
should feel the want of Rocinante on the road, it would be as well
to leave him hung up too."
"And yet, I had rather not have either him or the armour hung up,"
said Don Quixote, "that it may not be said, 'for good service a bad
return.'"
"Your worship is right," said Sancho; "for, as sensible people hold,
'the fault of the ass must not be laid on the pack-saddle;' and, as in
Don Quixote |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy: quite unmanned him; and in pursuance of his plan of not
showing himself in Casterbridge street till evening, lest he
should mortify Farfrae and his bride, he alighted here, with
his bundle and bird-cage, and was soon left as a lonely
figure on the broad white highway.
It was the hill near which he had waited to meet Farfrae,
almost two years earlier, to tell him of the serious illness
of his wife Lucetta. The place was unchanged; the same
larches sighed the same notes; but Farfrae had another wife--
and, as Henchard knew, a better one. He only hoped that
Elizabeth-Jane had obtained a better home than had been hers
The Mayor of Casterbridge |
