| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Historical Lecturers and Essays by Charles Kingsley: conquered the Medes, even if Cyrus had never lived, is to say, as
too many philosophers seem to me to say, that, given cannon, powder,
and shot, it will fire itself off some day if we only leave it alone
long enough.
It may be so. But our usual experience of Nature and Fact is, that
spontaneous combustion is a rare and exceptional phenomenon; that if
a cannon is to be fired, someone must arise and pull the trigger.
And I believe that in Society and Politics, when a great event is
ready to be done, someone must come and do it--do it, perhaps, half
unwittingly, by some single rash act--like that first fatal shot
fired by an electric spark.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from A Collection of Beatrix Potter by Beatrix Potter: had not unfortunately run into
a gooseberry net, and got
caught by the large buttons on
his jacket. It was a blue jacket
with brass buttons, quite new.
PETER gave himself up for
lost, and shed big tears;
but his sobs were overheard by
some friendly sparrows, who
flew to him in great excitement,
and implored him to
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from In the South Seas by Robert Louis Stevenson: of schemes; has bought land of the natives; has planted five
thousand coco-palms; has a desert island in his eye, which he
desires to lease, and a schooner in the stocks, which he has laid
and built himself, and even hopes to finish. Mr. M'Callum and I
did not meet, but, like gallant troubadours, corresponded in verse.
I hope he will not consider it a breach of copyright if I give here
a specimen of his muse. He and Bishop Dordillon are the two
European bards of the Marquesas.
'Sail, ho! Ahoy! CASCO,
First among the pleasure fleet
That came around to greet
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