| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Profits of Religion by Upton Sinclair: read of the negroes of the Caribbean islands that "their priests
and priestesses exercise an almost unlimited power." Miss
Kingsley, in her "West African Studies", tells us that if we
desire to understand the institutions of this district, we must
study the native's religion.
For his religion has so firm a grasp upon his mind that it
influences everything he does. it is not a thing apart, as the
religion of the Europeans is at times. The African cannot say,
"Oh, that is all right from a religious point of view, but one
must be practical." To be practical, to get on in the world, to
live the day and night through, he must be right in the religious
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Forged Coupon by Leo Tolstoy: cows were home-bred, not very large, but giving
plenty of milk; fowls were also kept in the poultry
yard, and the hens were of a special kind, laying
a great quantity of eggs. In the orchard the fruit
trees were well whitewashed and propped on poles
to enable them to grow straight. Everything was
looked after--solid, clean, and in perfect order.
Peter Nikolaevich rejoiced in the perfect condi-
tion of his estate, and was proud to have achieved
it--not by oppressing the peasants, but, on the
contrary, by the extreme fairness of his dealings
The Forged Coupon |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Prince by Nicolo Machiavelli: of the gate that leads into Sinigalia, not by a straight line, but
transversely. Before this gate there stands a collection of houses
with a square to which the bank of the river forms one side.
The Vitelli and Orsini having received orders to wait for the duke,
and to honour him in person, sent away their men to several castles
distant from Sinigalia about six miles, so that room could be made for
the men of the duke; and they left in Sinigalia only Oliverotto and
his band, which consisted of one thousand infantry and one hundred and
fifty horsemen, who were quartered in the suburb mentioned above.
Matters having been thus arranged, the Duke Valentino left for
Sinigalia, and when the leaders of the cavalry reached the bridge they
The Prince |
