| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Works of Samuel Johnson by Samuel Johnson: indisputably true; but the charge of plagiarism,
which is raised upon it, is not to be allowed with
equal readiness. A coincidence of sentiment may
easily happen without any communication, since
there are many occasions in which all reasonable men
will nearly think alike. Writers of all ages have had
the same sentiments, because they have in all ages
had the same objects of speculation; the interests and
passions, the virtues and vices of mankind, have been
diversified in different times, only by unessential and
casual varieties: and we must, therefore, expect in
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Hermione's Little Group of Serious Thinkers by Don Marquis: But I interrupted him. Another idea had come
to me -- just like that, and -- would you believe it?
I dashed off another one, right then and there! It
went:
I see the rain fall.
It is no effort for the rain to fall.
Why is it no effort?
Because it falls spontaneously!
O Spontaneity! Spontaneity!
Rain is genius,
Genius is rain!
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Red Inn by Honore de Balzac: his brain; every nerve quivers with horrible shooting pains, and he
writhes in torture. He suffers so much in his head that he did not
even feel the moxas they used formerly to apply to relieve it; but
Monsieur Brousson, who is now his physician, has forbidden that
remedy, declaring that the trouble is a nervous affection, an
inflammation of the nerves, for which leeches should be applied to the
neck, and opium to the head. As a result, the attacks are not so
frequent; they appear now only about once a year, and always late in
the autumn. When he recovers, Taillefer says repeatedly that he would
far rather die than endure such torture."
"Then he must suffer terribly!" said a broker, considered a wit, who
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