| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Democracy In America, Volume 2 by Alexis de Toqueville: existed at that period in precisely similar circumstances; but
this did not prevent the laws then in force from assigning to
each of them distinct duties and different rights. On the
contrary, at the present time all the powers of government are
exerted to impose the same customs and the same laws on
populations which have as yet but few points of resemblance. As
the conditions of men become equal amongst a people, individuals
seem of less importance, and society of greater dimensions; or
rather, every citizen, being assimilated to all the rest, is lost
in the crowd, and nothing stands conspicuous but the great and
imposing image of the people at large. This naturally gives the
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Beast in the Jungle by Henry James: long felt as in the lap of the gods was no more than this
circumstance, which touched him so nearly, of her acquiring a house
in London. It was the first allusion they had yet again made,
needing any other hitherto so little; but when she replied, after
having given him the news, that she was by no means satisfied with
such a trifle as the climax to so special a suspense, she almost
set him wondering if she hadn't even a larger conception of
singularity for him than he had for himself. He was at all events
destined to become aware little by little, as time went by, that
she was all the while looking at his life, judging it, measuring
it, in the light of the thing she knew, which grew to be at last,
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Dracula by Bram Stoker: We have now had so many changes and find the same thing so constantly
that we are encouraged to think that the journey will be an easy one.
Dr. Van Helsing is laconic, he tells the farmers that he is hurrying
to Bistritz, and pays them well to make the exchange of horses.
We get hot soup, or coffee, or tea, and off we go.
It is a lovely country. Full of beauties of all imaginable kinds,
and the people are brave, and strong, and simple, and seem
full of nice qualities. They are very, very superstitious.
In the first house where we stopped, when the woman who served
us saw the scar on my forehead, she crossed herself and put
out two fingers towards me, to keep off the evil eye.
Dracula |
