| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Democracy In America, Volume 1 by Alexis de Toqueville: impartiality of nature. The image was sometimes distorted, and
the perspective was not always true, but he was neither a
panegyrist, nor an advocate, nor a critic. He observed American
phenomena as illustrations, not as proof nor arguments; and
although it is apparent that the tendency of his mind was not
wholly favorable to the democratic principle, yet those who
dissent from his conclusions must commend the ability and courage
with which they are expressed.
Though not originally written for Americans, "Democracy in
America" must always remain a work of engrossing and constantly
increasing interest to citizens of the United States as the first
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Voyage of the Beagle by Charles Darwin: voyage, which are of a more reasonable nature. The map
of the world ceases to be a blank; it becomes a picture full
of the most varied and animated figures. Each part assumes
its proper dimensions: continents are not looked at in the
light of islands, or islands considered as mere specks, which
are, in truth, larger than many kingdoms of Europe. Africa,
or North and South America, are well-sounding names, and
easily pronounced; but it is not until having sailed for
weeks along small portions of their shores, that one is
thoroughly convinced what vast spaces on our immense world
these names imply.
The Voyage of the Beagle |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Middlemarch by George Eliot: The spiritual kind of rescue was a genuine need with him. There may
be coarse hypocrites, who consciously affect beliefs and emotions
for the sake of gulling the world, but Bulstrode was not one of them.
He was simply a man whose desires had been stronger than his
theoretic beliefs, and who had gradually explained the gratification
of his desires into satisfactory agreement with those beliefs.
If this be hypocrisy, it is a process which shows itself occasionally
in us all, to whatever confession we belong, and whether we
believe in the future perfection of our race or in the nearest
date fixed for the end of the world; whether we regard the earth
as a putrefying nidus for a saved remnant, including ourselves,
Middlemarch |
