| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Camille by Alexandre Dumas: where I gave you our first rendezvous. All the time I had my eyes
fixed on the stall where you sat that day, though a sort of
country fellow sat there, laughing loudly at all the foolish
things that the actors said. I was half dead when they brought me
home. I coughed and spat blood all the night. To-day I can not
speak, I can scarcely move my arm. My God! My God! I am going to
die! I have been expecting it, but I can not get used to the
thought of suffering more than I suffer now, and if--
After this the few characters traced by Marguerite were
indecipherable, and what followed was written by Julie Duprat.
February 18.
Camille |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Miracle Mongers and Their Methods by Harry Houdini: eyebrows terribly. This particular leap through
fire was the big sensation of those days, and
Forrest evidently had a hankering to show his
friends that he could accomplish it--and he
did.
The second concerns an equally popular
actor, a comedian this time, the elder Sothern
(1826-1881). On March 20, 1878, a writer in
the Chicago Inter-Ocean communicated to that
paper the following curiously descriptive article:
Is Mr. Sothern a medium?
Miracle Mongers and Their Methods |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Give Me Liberty Or Give Me Death by Patrick Henry: a proper use of those means which the God of nature hath placed in our power.
The millions of people, armed in the holy cause of liberty, and in such a
country as that which we possess, are invincible by any force which our enemy
can send against us. Besides, sir, we shall not fight our battles alone.
There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations, and who will
raise up friends to fight our battles for us. The battle, sir, is not to the
strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave. Besides, sir,
we have no election. If we were base enough to desire it, it is now too late
to retire from the contest. There is no retreat but in submission and slavery!
Our chains are forged! Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston!
The war is inevitable--and let it come! I repeat it, sir, let it come.
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