| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Droll Stories, V. 1 by Honore de Balzac: moving from it, but readily ravished with the sight alone of this lady
whom he had chosen as his. His pale face was softly melancholy. His
physiognomy gave proof of fine heart, one of those which nourish
ardent passions and plunge delightedly into the despairs of love
without hope. Of these people there are few, because ordinarily one
likes more a certain thing than the unknown felicities lying and
flourishing at the bottommost depths of the soul.
This said gentleman, although his garments were well made, and clean
and neat, having even a certain amount of taste shown in the
arrangement, seemed to the constable's wife to be a poor knight
seeking fortune, and come from afar, with his nobility for his
Droll Stories, V. 1 |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from War and the Future by H. G. Wells: 3
It seems to be part of the stern resolve of Fate that this, the
greatest of wars, shall be the least glorious; it is manifestly
being decided not by victories but by blunders. It is indeed a
history of colossal stupidities. Among the most decisive of
these blunders, second only perhaps of the blunder of the Verdun
attack and far outshining the wild raid of the British towards
Bagdad, was the blunder of the Trentino offensive. It does not
need the equipment of a military expert, it demands only quite
ordinary knowledge and average intelligence, to realise the folly
of that Austrian adventure. There is some justification for a
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Democracy In America, Volume 1 by Alexis de Toqueville: profession are prevented from holding that rank in the political
world which they enjoy in private life, we may rest assured that
they will be the foremost agents of revolution. But it must then
be inquired whether the cause which induces them to innovate and
to destroy is accidental, or whether it belongs to some lasting
purpose which they entertain. It is true that lawyers mainly
contributed to the overthrow of the French monarchy in 1789; but
it remains to be seen whether they acted thus because they had
studied the laws, or because they were prohibited from
co-operating in the work of legislation.
Five hundred years ago the English nobles headed the people,
|
