| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from A Drama on the Seashore by Honore de Balzac: "'Such language to your mother increases your crime. Come, to the
point! Will you swear?'
"'Yes.'
"'Then,' Pierre said, 'was there upon your gold piece the little cross
which the sardine merchant who paid it to me scratched on ours?'
"Jacques broke down and wept.
"'Enough,' said Pierre. 'I shall not speak to you of the crimes you
have committed before this. I do not choose that a Cambremer should
die on a scaffold. Say your prayers and make haste. A priest is coming
to confess you.'
"The mother had left the room; she could not hear her son condemned.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Gettysburg Address by Abraham Lincoln: to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember,
what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.
It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished
work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced.
It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining
before us. . .that from these honored dead we take increased devotion
to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion. . .
that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain. . .
that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom. . .
and that government of the people. . .by the people. . .for the people. . .
shall not perish from this earth.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Herland by Charlotte Gilman: crushed out underneath, a hopeless substratum of paupers
and degenerates, and no serenity or peace for anyone, no
possibility for really noble qualities among the people at large.
Neither did they start off on predatory excursions to get more
land from somebody else, or to get more food from somebody else,
to maintain their struggling mass.
Not at all. They sat down in council together and thought it
out. Very clear, strong thinkers they were. They said: "With our
best endeavors this country will support about so many people,
with the standard of peace, comfort, health, beauty, and progress
we demand. Very well. That is all the people we will make."
Herland |
