The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Criminal Sociology by Enrico Ferri: twofold character, and both modes ought to be employed and brought
into action simultaneously--in the first place, the amelioration
of the social conditions, as a natural preventive of crime, in the
nature of a substitute for punishment; and, secondly, measures of
perpetual or temporary elimination of criminals, according as the
influence of biological conditions in the evolution of crime is
all but absolute, or more or less great, and more or less curable.
As a matter of fact, when we follow the periodic variations of
crime, with its measured growth and decrease, we cannot fail to
conclude that these constant and constantly occurring variations
depend upon a corresponding variation of anthropological and
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Alkahest by Honore de Balzac: into fraternal relations with Germany and Holland. From Spain it
acquired the luxury of scarlet dyes and shimmering satins, tapestries
of vigorous design, plumes, mandolins, and courtly bearing. In
exchange for its linen and its laces, it brought from Venice that
fairy glass-ware in which wine sparkles and seems the mellower. From
Austria it learned the ponderous diplomacy which, to use a popular
saying, takes three steps backward to one forward; while its trade
with India poured into it the grotesque designs of China and the
marvels of Japan.
And yet, in spite of its patience in gathering such treasures, its
tenacity in parting with no possession once gained, its endurance of
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Herbert West: Reanimator by H. P. Lovecraft: What he wanted was not a thing which many persons want, but something
connected with the peculiar branch of medical science which he
had chosen quite clandestinely to follow, and in which he had
achieved amazing and occasionally hideous results. It was, in
fact, nothing more or less than an abundant supply of freshly
killed men in every stage of dismemberment.
Herbert West needed
fresh bodies because his life-work was the reanimation of the
dead. This work was not known to the fashionable clientele who
had so swiftly built up his fame after his arrival in Boston;
but was only too well known to me, who had been his closest friend
Herbert West: Reanimator |