| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Aeneid by Virgil: In the dark dungeon of the limbs confin'd,
Assert the native skies, or own its heav'nly kind:
Nor death itself can wholly wash their stains;
But long-contracted filth ev'n in the soul remains.
The relics of inveterate vice they wear,
And spots of sin obscene in ev'ry face appear.
For this are various penances enjoin'd;
And some are hung to bleach upon the wind,
Some plung'd in waters, others purg'd in fires,
Till all the dregs are drain'd, and all the rust expires.
All have their manes, and those manes bear:
Aeneid |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Democracy In America, Volume 1 by Alexis de Toqueville: upon the map, and their discrepancies would soon be perceived if
an attempt were made by a central authority to prescribe the same
laws to the whole territory.
One of the circumstances which most powerfully contribute to
support the Federal Government in America is that the States have
not only similar interests, a common origin, and a common tongue,
but that they are also arrived at the same stage of civilization;
which almost always renders a union feasible. I do not know of
any European nation, how small soever it may be, which does not
present less uniformity in its different provinces than the
American people, which occupies a territory as extensive as
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen: It always puts me in mind of the country that Emily and her
father travelled through, in The Mysteries of Udolpho.
But you never read novels, I dare say?"
"Why not?"
"Because they are not clever enough for you--gentlemen
read better books."
"The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not
pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid.
I have read all Mrs. Radcliffe's works, and most of
them with great pleasure. The Mysteries of Udolpho,
when I had once begun it, I could not lay down again;
Northanger Abbey |
