| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Second Inaugural Address by Abraham Lincoln: than let the nation survive; and the other would accept war rather
than let it perish. And the war came.
One-eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not distributed
generally over the Union, but localized in the Southern part of it.
These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew
that this interest was, somehow, the cause of the war. To strengthen,
perpetuate, and extend this interest was the object for which the
insurgents would rend the Union, even by war; while the government claimed
no right to do more than to restrict the territorial enlargement of it.
Neither party expected for the war the magnitude or the duration
which it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause
Second Inaugural Address |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from My Antonia by Willa Cather: Most Black Hawk fathers had no personal habits outside their
domestic ones; they paid the bills, pushed the baby-carriage
after office hours, moved the sprinkler about over the lawn,
and took the family driving on Sunday. Mr. Harling,
therefore, seemed to me autocratic and imperial in his ways.
He walked, talked, put on his gloves, shook hands, like a man
who felt that he had power. He was not tall, but he carried
his head so haughtily that he looked a commanding figure,
and there was something daring and challenging in his eyes.
I used to imagine that the ,nobles' of whom Antonia was always
talking probably looked very much like Christian Harling,
My Antonia |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe: The impetuous fury of the entering gust nearly lifted us
from our feet. It was, indeed, a tempestuous yet sternly
beautiful night, and one wildly singular in its terror and its
beauty. A whirlwind had apparently collected its force in our
vicinity; for there were frequent and violent alterations in the
direction of the wind; and the exceeding density of the clouds
(which hung so low as to press upon the turrets of the house) did
not prevent our perceiving the lifelike velocity with which they
flew careering from all points against each other, without
passing away into the distance. I say that even their exceeding
density did not prevent our perceiving this--yet we had no
The Fall of the House of Usher |
