| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Malbone: An Oldport Romance by Thomas Wentworth Higginson: wholly happy? What sorrow would be saved, what shame, perhaps,
be averted, should those sweet beguiling eyes never open, and
that perfidious voice never deceive any more? Why tend the
life of one who would leave the whole world happier, purer,
freer, if she were dead?
In a tumult of thought, Hope went and sat half-unconsciously by
the window. There was nothing to be seen except the steady
beacon of the light-house and a pale-green glimmer, like an
earthly star, from an anchored vessel. The night wind came
softly in, soothing her with a touch like a mother's, in its
grateful coolness. The air seemed full of half-vibrations,
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Spirit of the Border by Zane Grey: counted the bodies of forty-nine grown Christians and twenty-seven children.
An hour after you left us the church was in ashes, and the next day I saw the
burned bodies. Oh! the sickening horror of the scene! It haunts me! That
monster Jim Girty killed fourteen Christians with his sledge-hammer."
"Did you hear of his death?" asked Colonel Zane.
"Yes, and a fitting end it was to the frontier 'Skull and Cross-bones'."
"It was like Wetzel to think of such a vengeance."
"Has Wetzel come in since?"
"No. Jonathan says he went after Wingenund, and there's no telling when he'll
return."
"I hoped he would spare the Delaware."
The Spirit of the Border |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Democracy In America, Volume 1 by Alexis de Toqueville: world; it concerns, not a nation, but all mankind. If those
nations whose social condition is democratic could only remain
free as long as they are inhabitants of the wilds, we could not
but despair of the future destiny of the human race; for
democracy is rapidly acquiring a more extended sway, and the
wilds are gradually peopled with men. If it were true that laws
and manners are insufficient to maintain democratic institutions,
what refuge would remain open to the nations, except the
despotism of a single individual? I am aware that there are many
worthy persons at the present time who are not alarmed at this
latter alternative, and who are so tired of liberty as to be glad
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