| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Kwaidan by Lafcadio Hearn: police to enforce such laws, nearly everybody would seek only his or her
personal advantage, to the disadvantage of everybody else. The strong would
then destroy the weak; pity and sympathy would disappear; and the whole
social fabric would fall to pieces... These teachings confess the existing
imperfection of human nature; and they contain obvious truth. But those who
first proclaimed that truth, thousands and thousands of years ago, never
imagined a form of social existence in which selfishness would be naturally
impossible. It remained for irreligious Nature to furnish us with proof
positive that there can exist a society in which the pleasure of active
beneficence makes needless the idea of duty,-- a society in which
instinctive morality can dispense with ethical codes of every sort,-- a
Kwaidan |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from A Horse's Tale by Mark Twain: to you for a long visit when the War Office retires me.
I attend to her studies myself; has she told you that? Yes, I am
her school-master, and she makes pretty good progress, I think,
everything considered. Everything considered - being translated -
means holidays. But the fact is, she was not born for study, and
it comes hard. Hard for me, too; it hurts me like a physical pain
to see that free spirit of the air and the sunshine laboring and
grieving over a book; and sometimes when I find her gazing far away
towards the plain and the blue mountains with the longing in her
eyes, I have to throw open the prison doors; I can't help it. A
quaint little scholar she is, and makes plenty of blunders. Once I
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Damaged Goods by Upton Sinclair: "Well, in that case, there is nothing more for you to do here--
run along."
"Since I am here," said the patient submissively, "I will hear
you."
"Very well, then. I tell you that if you have the will and the
perseverance, none of the things you fear will happen to you."
"Of course, it is your duty to tell me that."
"I will tell you that there are one hundred thousand like you in
Paris, alert, and seemingly well. Come, take what you were just
saying--wheel-chairs. One doesn't see so many of them."
"No, that's true," said George.
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