| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Unseen World and Other Essays by John Fiske: learned that a guess must be verified before it can be accepted
as a sound theory; and, secondly, so many truths have been
established beyond contravention, that the latitude for
hypothesis is much less than it once was. Nine tenths of the
guesses which might have occurred to a mediaeval philosopher
would now be ruled out as inadmissible, because they would not
harmonize with the knowledge which has been acquired since the
Middle Ages. There is one direction especially in which this
continuous limitation of guesswork by ever-accumulating
experience has manifested itself. From first to last, all our
speculative successes and failures have agreed in teaching us
The Unseen World and Other Essays |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Black Dwarf by Walter Scott: lunt, it's be the dearest step ye ever made in your days."
"We'll sune see that," said Hobbie, advancing fearlessly with the
torch.
The marauder snapped his piece at him, which, fortunately for our
honest friend, did not go off; while Earnscliff, firing at the
same moment at the narrow aperture and slight mark afforded by
the robber's face, grazed the side of his head with a bullet. He
had apparently calculated upon his post affording him more
security, for he no sooner felt the wound, though a very slight
one, than he requested a parley, and demanded to know what they
meant by attacking in this fashion a peaceable and honest man,
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Egmont by Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe: whole proceeding. Thy father ventures on this daring step, and majesty,
though horror-struck at the deed, must needs sanction the irrevocable.
Thou dost deliberate? Oh, contrive for me the way to freedom! Speak;
nourish hope in a living soul.
Ferdinand. Cease! Oh, cease! Every word deepens my despair. There is
here no outlet, no counsel, no escape.--'Tis this thought that tortures me,
that seizes my heart, and rends it as with talons. I have myself spread the
net; I know its firm, inextricable knots; I know that every avenue is barred
alike to courage and to stratagem. I feel that I too, like thyself, like all the
rest, am fettered. Think'st thou that I should give way to lamentation if any
means of safety remained untried? I have thrown myself at his feet,
Egmont |
