| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Confidence by Henry James: "How can a woman help knowing such a thing? She guesses it--
she discovers it by instinct; especially if she be a proud woman."
"Ah," said Bernard, "if pride is a source of information,
you must be a prodigy of knowledge!"
"I don't know that you are particularly humble!" the girl retorted.
"The meekest and most submissive of her sex would not have consented
to have such a bargain as that made about her--such a trick played
upon her!"
"My dearest Angela, it was no bargain--no trick!" Bernard interposed.
"It was a clumsy trick--it was a bad bargain!" she declared.
"At any rate I hated it--I hated the idea of your pretending to pass
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Walden by Henry David Thoreau: the mass of men are unprepared; but improvement is slow, because the
few are not materially wiser or better than the many. It is not so
important that many should be as good as you, as that there be some
absolute goodness somewhere; for that will leaven the whole lump.
There are thousands who are in opinion opposed to slavery and to the
war, who yet in effect do nothing to put an end to them; who,
esteeming themselves children of Washington and Franklin, sit down
with their hands in their pockets, and say that they know not what
to do, and do nothing; who even postpone the question of freedom to
the question of free-trade, and quietly read the prices-current
along with the latest advices from Mexico, after dinner, and, it may
Walden |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Glasses by Henry James: quantity. He had come to me only because he wanted to purchase,
and I remember being so amused at his attitude, which I had never
seen equally marked in a person of education, that I asked him why,
for the sort of enjoyment he desired, it wouldn't be more to the
point to deal directly with the lady. He stared and blushed at
this; the idea clearly alarmed him. He was an extraordinary case--
personally so modest that I could see it had never occurred to him.
He had fallen in love with a painted sign and seemed content just
to dream of what it stood for. He was the young prince in the
legend or the comedy who loses his heart to the miniature of the
princess beyond seas. Until I knew him better this puzzled me
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