| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Unseen World and Other Essays by John Fiske: taking the lead,--as having attained the ideal after which all
alike were striving. Now Sparta, situated in the midst of a
numerous conquered population of Messenians and Helots, was
partly a great gymnasium and partly a perpetual camp. Her
citizens were always in training. The entire social constitution
of Sparta was shaped with a view to the breeding and bringing up
of a strong and beautiful race. Feeble or ill-formed infants were
put to death. The age at which citizens might marry was
prescribed by law; and the State paired off men and women as the
modern breeder pairs off horses, with a sole view to the
excellence of the off-spring. A wife was not a helpmate, but a
The Unseen World and Other Essays |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from A Book of Remarkable Criminals by H. B. Irving: in Hull that once again during the day Peace had to repeat this
experience. For some three weeks, however, he contrived to
remain in Hull. He shaved the grey beard he was wearing at the
time of Dyson's murder, dyed his hair, put on a pair of
spectacles, and for the first time made use of his singular power
of contorting his features in such a way as to change altogether
the character of his face. But the hue and cry after him was
unremitting. There was a price of L100 on his head, and the
following description of him was circulated by the police:
"Charles Peace wanted for murder on the night of the 29th inst.
He is thin and slightly built, from fifty-five to sixty years of
A Book of Remarkable Criminals |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Paz by Honore de Balzac: one form of his superiority," continued the count. "I said to him
once: 'You are a sly one; you have in your heart a vast domain within
which you live and think.' He has a right to the title of count; but
in Paris he won't be called anything but captain."
"The fact is that the Florentine of the middle-ages has reappeared in
our century," said the countess. "Dante and Michael Angelo are in
him."
"That's the very truth," cried Adam. "He is a poet in soul."
"So here I am, married to two Poles," said the young countess, with a
gesture worthy of some genius of the stage.
"Dear child!" said Adam, pressing her to him, "it would have made me
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