| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Criminal Sociology by Enrico Ferri: rigorously; for in the social strata which contribute most to
criminality the laws are known only by their practical
application, which is also the only truly defensive function,
carrying with it a special preventive of the repetition of the
crime by the person condemned.
Thus the arguments of jurists and legislators have not much value
for the criminal sociologist when they are based solely on the
psychological illusion that the dangerous classes trouble
themselves about the shaping of a penal code, as the more
instructed and less numerous classes might well do. The dangerous
classes attend to the sentences of the judges, and still more to
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Gentle Grafter by O. Henry: streak of bright moonlight shining in the cabin door. Then he spreads
out five packages of one thousand dollars each on the floor, and
begins to cackle over the nest-egg like a hen.
"'I'll tell you a few things about that town,' says he. 'It's named
Rocky Springs, and they're building a Masonic temple, and it looks
like the Democratic candidate for mayor is going to get soaked by a
Pop, and Judge Tucker's wife, who has been down with pleurisy, is
getting some better. I had a talk on these liliputian thesises before
I could get a siphon in the fountain of knowledge that I was after.
And there's a bank there called the Lumberman's Fidelity and Plowman's
Savings Institution. It closed for business yesterday with $23,000
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Shadow Line by Joseph Conrad: time. It was one of those thoughts one had to
fight down, keep at arm's length at any cost. It
was unbearable to contemplate the possibility of
Ransome, the housekeeper of the ship, being laid
low. And what would happen to my command if
I got knocked over, with Mr. Burns too weak to
stand without holding on to his bed-place and the
second mate reduced to a state of permanent im-
becility? It was impossible to imagine, or rather,
it was only too easy to imagine.
I was alone on the poop. The ship having no
The Shadow Line |
