| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Lin McLean by Owen Wister: diocese?--he forbore to make any text from that last sentence the
cow-puncher had spoken. Lin talked cheerfully on about what he should now
do. The round-up must be somewhere near Du Noir Creek. He would join it
this season, but next he should work over to the Powder River country.
More business was over there, and better chances for a man to take up
some land and have a ranch of his own. As they got out at Fort Washakie,
the bishop handed him a small book, in which he had turned several leaves
down, carefully avoiding any page that related of miracles.
"You need not read it through, you know," he said, smiling; "just read
where I have marked, and see if you don't find some more facts. Goodbye--
and always come and see me."
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Criminal Sociology by Enrico Ferri: unfortunate beings who are diseased like himself.''
It would be impossible to put more clearly the pure classical
theory on crime and punishment; but perhaps it would be equally
impossible to show less solicitude for social defence against
criminal attacks. For it is certain that the mad murderer ``has
committed no crime'' from the ethical and legal point of view of
the classical school; but it is still more certain that there is a
dead man, and a family left behind who may be ruined by the deed,
and it is very probable that this homicide, ``innocent before the
law,'' will renew his outrage on other victims--and at any
rate they are innocent.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Duchesse de Langeais by Honore de Balzac: keeping; in the eye of the law it will be a sufficient
explanation of my death. You can avenge yourself, and fear
nothing from God or men."
"What good would the letter be to me? What would life be if I
had lost your love? If I wished to kill you, should I not be
ready to follow? No; thank you for the thought, but I do not
want the letter. Should I not begin to dread that you were
faithful to me through fear? And if a man knows that he must
risk his life for a stolen pleasure, might it not seem more
tempting? Armand, the thing I ask of you is the one hard thing
to do."
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