| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Boys' Life of Abraham Lincoln by Helen Nicolay: until his cartridges were all used up, his flagstaff had been
shot away, and the wooden buildings inside the fort were on fire.
Then, as the ships with supplies had not yet arrived, and he had
neither food nor ammunition, he was forced to surrender.
The news of the firing upon Fort Sumter changed the mood of the
country as if by magic. By deliberate act of the Confederate
government its attempt at peaceable secession had been changed to
active war. The Confederates gained Fort Sumter, but in doing so
they roused the patriotism of the North to a firm resolve that
this insult to the flag should be redressed, and that the
unrighteous experiment of a rival government founded upon slavery
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Scarecrow of Oz by L. Frank Baum: what they are like, and no 'mount of thinking will make
them any different."
"That's true enough," said the Ork. "But now I want to
make a proposal. While you are getting acquainted with
this new country, which looks as if it contains
everything to make one happy, I would like to fly along -
- all by myself -- and see if I can find my home on the
other side of the great desert. If I do, I will stay
there, of course. But if I fail to find Orkland I will
return to you in a week, to see if I can do anything more
to assist you."
The Scarecrow of Oz |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Gettysburg Address by Abraham Lincoln: Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth
upon this continent a new nation: conceived in liberty, and
dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war. . .testing whether
that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated. . .
can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war.
We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting place
for those who here gave their lives that this nation might live.
It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate. . .we cannot consecrate. . .
we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead,
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