| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Democracy In America, Volume 1 by Alexis de Toqueville: letter which he addressed to his fellow-citizens, and which may
be looked upon as his political bequest to the country: "The
great rule of conduct for us in regard to foreign nations is, in
extending our commercial relations, to have with them as little
political connection as possible. So far as we have already
formed engagements, let them be fulfilled with perfect good
faith. Here let us stop. Europe has a set of primary interests
which to us have none, or a very remote relation. Hence, she must
be engaged in frequent controversies, the causes of which are
essentially foreign to our concerns. Hence, therefore, it must
be unwise in us to implicate ourselves, by artificial ties, in
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Oakdale Affair by Edgar Rice Burroughs: and, for some unaccountable reason, the appeal was
stronger than the pleading of the girl. Slowly Bridge re-
alized that he could not leave this defenseless youth
alone even though a dozen women might be menaced
by the uncanny death below. With a firm hand he shot
the bolt. "Leave go of me," he said; "I shan't leave you
unless she calls for help in articulate words."
The boy rose and, trembling, pressed close to the
man who, involuntarily, threw a protecting arm about
the slim figure. The girl, too, drew nearer, while the two
yeggmen rose and stood in rigid silence by the window.
The Oakdale Affair |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson: punished. My devil had been long caged, he came out roaring. I
was conscious, even when I took the draught, of a more unbridled,
a more furious propensity to ill. It must have been this, I
suppose, that stirred in my soul that tempest of impatience with
which I listened to the civilities of my unhappy victim; I
declare, at least, before God, no man morally sane could have been
guilty of that crime upon so pitiful a provocation; and that I
struck in no more reasonable spirit than that in which a sick
child may break a plaything. But I had voluntarily stripped
myself of all those balancing instincts by which even the worst of
us continues to walk with some degree of steadiness among
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde |
