| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Bickerstaff-Partridge Papers by Jonathan Swift: made some years past, because I would offer nothing to the world
of which I am not as fully satisfied, as that I am now alive. For
these two last years I have not failed in above one or two
particulars, and those of no very great moment. I exactly
foretold the miscarriage at Toulon, with all its particulars; and
the loss of Admiral Shovel, tho' I was mistaken as to the day,
placing that accident about thirty-six hours sooner than it
happen'd; but upon reviewing my schemes, I quickly found the
cause of that error. I likewise foretold the Battle of Almanza to
the very day and hour, with the loss on both sides, and the
consequences thereof. All which I shewed to some friends many
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Great God Pan by Arthur Machen: think it over; I may be able to help you or I may not. Must you
be going now? Well, good-night, Villiers, good-night. Come and
see me in the course of a week."
V
THE LETTER OF ADVICE
"Do you know, Austin," said Villiers, as the two
friends were pacing sedately along Piccadilly one pleasant
morning in May, "do you know I am convinced that what you told
me about Paul Street and the Herberts is a mere episode in an
extraordinary history? I may as well confess to you that when I
asked you about Herbert a few months ago I had just seen him."
The Great God Pan |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Second Inaugural Address by Abraham Lincoln: living God always ascribe to him? Fondly do we hope--fervently
do we pray--that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away.
Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by
the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil
shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn by the lash
shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said
three thousand years ago, so still it must be said, "The
judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether."
With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in
the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on
to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds;
Second Inaugural Address |
