| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Gettysburg Address by Abraham Lincoln: for those who here gave their lives that this nation might live.
It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate. . .we cannot consecrate. . .
we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead,
who struggled here have consecrated it, far above our poor power
to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember,
what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.
It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished
work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced.
It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining
before us. . .that from these honored dead we take increased devotion
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Figure in the Carpet by Henry James: intensity of his interest in my anecdote; and without making too
much of the divergence of our respective estimates mentioned that
my friend was already of opinion that he saw much further into a
certain affair than most people. He was quite as fired as I had
been at Bridges. He was moreover in love with the young lady:
perhaps the two together would puzzle something out.
Vereker seemed struck with this. "Do you mean they're to be
married?"
"I dare say that's what it will come to."
"That may help them," he conceded, "but we must give them time!"
I spoke of my own renewed assault and confessed my difficulties;
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Seraphita by Honore de Balzac: him! Minna, that is how I love him."
"Love whom?" said Minna, tortured with sudden jealousy.
"God," replied Seraphitus, his voice glowing in their souls like fires
of liberty from peak to peak upon the mountains,--"God, who does not
betray us! God, who will never abandon us! who crowns our wishes; who
satisfies His creatures with joy--joy unalloyed and infinite! God, who
never wearies but ever smiles! God, who pours into the soul fresh
treasures day by day; who purifies and leaves no bitterness; who is
all harmony, all flame! God, who has placed Himself within our hearts
to blossom there; who hearkens to our prayers; who does not stand
aloof when we are His, but gives His presence absolutely! He who
Seraphita |
