| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Twice Told Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne: we discern no badge of infamy on man or woman. It was the policy
of our ancestors to search out even the most secret sins, and
expose them to shame, without fear or favor, in the broadest
light of the noonday sun. Were such the custom now, perchance we
might find materials for a no less piquant sketch than the above.
Except the malefactors whom we have described, and the diseased
or infirm persons, the whole male population of the town, between
sixteen years and sixty, were seen in the ranks of the trainband.
A few stately savages, in all the pomp and dignity of the
primeval Indian, stood gazing at the spectacle. Their
flint-headed arrows were but childish weapons compared with the
Twice Told Tales |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne: "And these other instruments, the use of which I cannot guess?"
"Here, Professor, I ought to give you some explanations.
Will you be kind enough to listen to me?"
He was silent for a few moments, then he said:
"There is a powerful agent, obedient, rapid, easy, which conforms to
every use, and reigns supreme on board my vessel. Everything is done by means
of it. It lights, warms it, and is the soul of my mechanical apparatus.
This agent is electricity."
"Electricity?" I cried in surprise.
"Yes, sir."
"Nevertheless, Captain, you possess an extreme rapidity of movement,
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Democracy In America, Volume 1 by Alexis de Toqueville: legal profession, tend to separate it more and more from the
people, and to place it in a distinct class. The French lawyer
is simply a man extensively acquainted with the statutes of his
country; but the English or American lawyer resembles the
hierophants of Egypt, for, like them, he is the sole interpreter
of an occult science.
The station which lawyers occupy in England and America
exercises no less an influence upon their habits and their
opinions. The English aristocracy, which has taken care to
attract to its sphere whatever is at all analogous to itself, has
conferred a high degree of importance and of authority upon the
|
