| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Bickerstaff-Partridge Papers by Jonathan Swift: give of next year's events, shall take in the principal affairs
that happen in Europe; and if I be denied the liberty of offering
it to my own country, I shall appeal to the learned world, by
publishing it in Latin, and giving order to have it printed in
Holland.
______________________________________________
The Accomplishment of the First of Mr Bickerstaff's Predictions;
being an account of the death of Mr Partridge, the
almanack-maker, upon the 29th instant.
In a letter to a person of honour
Written in the year 1708
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The $30,000 Bequest and Other Stories by Mark Twain: and tears lies just before me, crowding my aching bosom with
the fleeting dream of humanity, which must shortly terminate.
And to what purpose will all this bustle of life, these agitations
and emotions of the heart have conduced, if it leave behind it
nothing of utility, if it leave no traces of improvement? Can it
be that I am deceived in my conclusions? No, I see that I have
nothing to hope for, but everything for fear, which tends to drive
me from the walks of time.
Oh! in this dead night, if loud winds arise,
To lash the surge and bluster in the skies,
May the west its furious rage display,
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Perfect Wagnerite: A Commentary on the Niblung's Ring by George Bernard Shaw: passed smce the tetralogy was written; and in that time the
purposes of many half instinctive acts of genius have become
clearer to the common man than they were to the doers. Some years
ago, in the course of an explanation of Ibsen's plays, I pointed
out that it was by no means certain or even likely that Ibsen was
as definitely conscious of his thesis as I. All the stupid
people, and some critics who, though not stupid, had not
themselves written what the Germans call "tendency" works, saw
nothing in this but a fantastic affectation of the extravagant
self-conceit of knowing more about Ibsen than Ibsen himself.
Fortunately, in taking exactly the same position now with regard
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