| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Edingburgh Picturesque Notes by Robert Louis Stevenson: The cellars are already high above the gazer's head,
planted on the steep hill-side; as for the garret, all
the furniture may be in the pawn-shop, but it commands a
famous prospect to the Highland hills. The poor man may
roost up there in the centre of Edinburgh, and yet have a
peep of the green country from his window; he shall see
the quarters of the well-to-do fathoms underneath, with
their broad squares and gardens; he shall have nothing
overhead but a few spires, the stone top-gallants of the
city; and perhaps the wind may reach him with a rustic
pureness, and bring a smack of the sea or of flowering
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Astoria by Washington Irving: agriculture and the arts of civilization, have, in the property
they have acquired, and the protection and aid extended to them,
too many advantages to be induced readily to take up arms against
us, particularly if they can be brought to the full conviction
that their new homes will be permanent and undisturbed; and there
is every reason and motive, in policy as well as humanity, for
our ameliorating their condition by every means in our power. But
the case is far different with regard to the Osages, the Kanzas,
the Pawnees, and other roving hordes beyond the frontiers of the
settlements. Wild and restless in their character and habits,
they are by no means so susceptible of control or civilization;
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Country Doctor by Honore de Balzac: "If I require that the ignorant masses should be governed by a strong
hand," the doctor resumed, after a brief pause, "I should desire at
the same time that the framework of the social system should be
sufficiently yielding and elastic to allow those who have the will and
are conscious of their ability to emerge from the crowd, to rise and
take their place among the privileged classes. The aim of power of
every kind is its own preservation. In order to live, a government,
to-day as in the past, must press the strong men of the nation into
its service, taking them from every quarter, so as to make them its
defenders, and to remove from among the people the men of energy who
incite the masses to insurrection. By opening out in this way to the
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