| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Psychology of Revolution by Gustave le Bon: the French Revolution promptly had an armed force at its
disposal, while Christianity was long in winning material power.
In the beginning its only adepts were the lowly, the poor, and
the slaves, filled with enthusiasm by the prospect of seeing
their miserable life transformed into an eternity of delight. By
a phenomenon of contagion from below, of which history affords us
more than one example, the doctrine finally invaded the upper
strata of the nation, but it was a long time before an
emperor considered the new faith sufficiently widespread to be
adopted as the official religion.
4. The Results of Political Revolutions.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Gambara by Honore de Balzac: "Yes," cried the cook, "and I can see what your plan is."
"If it is not too late to make the thunder of poetry audible to his
ears, in the midst of the harmonies of some noble music, we must put
him into a condition to receive it and appreciate it. Will you help me
to intoxicate Gambara, my good fellow? Will you be none the worse for
it?"
"What do you mean, Excellenza?"
Andrea went off without answering him, laughing at the acumen still
left to this cracked wit.
On the following day he called for Marianna, who had spent the morning
in arranging her dress,--a simple but decent outfit, on which she had
Gambara |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from War and the Future by H. G. Wells: aircraft guns, the Archibalds, begin to pattern the sky about
them with little balls of black smoke. From below one does not
see men nor feel that men are there; it is as if it were an
affair of midges. Close after the fighting machines come the
photographic aeroplanes, with cameras as long as a man is high,
flying low--at four or five thousand feet that is--over the enemy
trenches. The Archibald leaves these latter alone; it cannot
fire a shell to explode safely so soon after firing; but they are
shot at with rifles and machine guns. They do not mind being
shot at; only the petrol tank and the head and thorax of the
pilot are to be considered vital. They will come back with forty
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