| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe: of intense rays rolled throughout, and bathed the whole in a
ghastly and inappropriate splendour.
I have just spoken of that morbid condition of the auditory
nerve which rendered all music intolerable to the sufferer, with
the exception of certain effects of stringed instruments. It
was, perhaps, the narrow limits to which he thus confined himself
upon the guitar, which gave birth, in great measure, to the
fantastic character of the performances. But the fervid
facility of his impromptus could not be so accounted for.
They must have been, and were, in the notes, as well as in the
words of his wild fantasias (for he not unfrequently accompanied
The Fall of the House of Usher |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Ancient Regime by Charles Kingsley: supernatural, and literally unspeakable kind; which, whether they be
according to reason or not, are so little according to logic--that
is, to speakable reason--that they cannot be put into speech. Men
act, whether singly or in masses, by impulses and instincts for
which they give reasons quite incompetent, often quite irrelevant;
but which they have caught from each other, as they catch fever or
small-pox; as unconsciously, and yet as practically and potently;
just as the nineteenth century has caught from the philosophers of
the eighteenth most practical rules of conduct, without even (in
most cases) having read a word of their works.
And what has this century caught from these philosophers? One rule
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Lemorne Versus Huell by Elizabeth Drew Stoddard: through the bridle.
"I am a runaway. What do you think of the Fugitive Slave Bill?"
"I approve of returning property to its owners."
"The sea must have been God's temple first, instead of the
groves."
"I believe the Saurians were an Orthodox tribe."
"Did you stop yonder to ponder the sea?"
"I was pondering 'Lemorne vs. Huell.'"
He looked at me earnestly, and then gave a tug at the bridle, for
his steed was inclined to make a crude repast from the bushes.
"How was it that I did not detect you at once?" he continued.
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