| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Professor by Charlotte Bronte: and sometimes a little too insinuating, and if I did discover
that his mildness was more a matter of appearance than of
reality--if I did occasionally suspect the existence of flint or
steel under an external covering of velvet--still we are none of
us perfect; and weary as I was of the atmosphere of brutality and
insolence in which I had constantly lived at X----, I had no
inclination now, on casting anchor in calmer regions, to
institute at once a prying search after defects that were
scrupulously withdrawn and carefully veiled from my view. I was
willing to take Pelet for what he seemed--to believe him
benevolent and friendly until some untoward event should prove
The Professor |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Three Taverns by Edwin Arlington Robinson: That were above a railroad and a river.
Square as a box and chillier than a tomb
It was indeed, to look at or to live in --
All which had I been told. "Ferguson died,"
The stranger said, "and then there was an auction.
I live here, but I've never yet been warm.
Remember him? Yes, I remember him.
I knew him -- as a man may know a tree --
For twenty years. He may have held himself
A little high when he was here, but now . . .
Yes, I remember Ferguson. Oh, yes."
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Common Sense by Thomas Paine: that it is the true interest of this continent to be so;
that every thing short of THAT is mere patchwork,
that it can afford no lasting felicity,
--that it is leaving the sword to our children,
and shrinking back at a time, when, a little more,
a little farther, would have rendered this continent
the glory of the earth.
As Britain hath not manifested the least inclination towards
a compromise, we may be assured that no terms can be obtained
worthy the acceptance of the continent, or any ways equal
to the expense of blood and treasure we have been already put to.
Common Sense |
