| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Black Arrow by Robert Louis Stevenson: swell was heaviest. No other vessel lay nearer than several
cables' length; those that were the nearest were themselves
entirely deserted; and as the skiff approached, a thick flurry of
snow and a sudden darkening of the weather further concealed the
movements of the outlaws from all possible espial. In a trice they
had leaped upon the heaving deck, and the skiff was dancing at the
stern. The Good Hope was captured.
She was a good stout boat, decked in the bows and amidships, but
open in the stern. She carried one mast, and was rigged between a
felucca and a lugger. It would seem that Skipper Arblaster had
made an excellent venture, for the hold was full of pieces of
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Democracy In America, Volume 2 by Alexis de Toqueville: propensity raise the mind towards the loftier spheres of the
intellect; interest draws it down to the middle zone. There it
may develop all its energy and restless activity, there it may
engender all its wonders. These very Americans, who have not
discovered one of the general laws of mechanics, have introduced
into navigation an engine which changes the aspect of the world.
Assuredly I do not content that the democratic nations of
our time are destined to witness the extinction of the
transcendent luminaries of man's intelligence, nor even that no
new lights will ever start into existence. At the age at which
the world has now arrived, and amongst so many cultivated
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne: changed to sharp spikes. One would have thought that Captain Nemo
was courting a death worthy of himself, a death by lightning.
As the Nautilus, pitching dreadfully, raised its steel spur in the air,
it seemed to act as a conductor, and I saw long sparks burst from it.
Crushed and without strength I crawled to the panel, opened it,
and descended to the saloon. The storm was then at its height.
It was impossible to stand upright in the interior of the Nautilus.
Captain Nemo came down about twelve. I heard the reservoirs filling
by degrees, and the Nautilus sank slowly beneath the waves.
Through the open windows in the saloon I saw large fish terrified,
passing like phantoms in the water. Some were struck before my eyes.
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea |
