| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Ancient Regime by Charles Kingsley: can kill our enemy, but with which also our enemy can kill us. Like
all outward and material things, they are equally fit for good and
for evil. In England here--they have been as yet, as far as I can
see, nothing but blessings: but I have my very serious doubts
whether they are likely to be blessings to the whole human race, for
many an age to come. I can conceive them--may God avert the omen!--
the instruments of a more crushing executive centralisation, of a
more utter oppression of the bodies and souls of men, than the world
has yet seen. I can conceive--may God avert the omen!--centuries
hence, some future world-ruler sitting at the junction of all
railroads, at the centre of all telegraph-wires--a world-spider in
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Lair of the White Worm by Bram Stoker: process of metabolism, to change much of its bulk for intellectual
growth, we should at once arrive at a new class of creature--more
dangerous, perhaps, than the world has ever had any experience of--a
force which can think, which has no soul and no morals, and
therefore no acceptance of responsibility. A snake would be a good
illustration of this, for it is cold-blooded, and therefore removed
from the temptations which often weaken or restrict warm-blooded
creatures. If, for instance, the Worm of Lambton--if such ever
existed--were guided to its own ends by an organised intelligence
capable of expansion, what form of creature could we imagine which
would equal it in potentialities of evil? Why, such a being would
Lair of the White Worm |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson by Robert Louis Stevenson: Now you would have gone longer yet without news of your truant
patient, but that I have a medical discovery to communicate. I
find I can (almost immediately) fight off a cold with liquid
extract of coca; two or (if obstinate) three teaspoonfuls in the
day for a variable period of from one to five days sees the cold
generally to the door. I find it at once produces a glow, stops
rigour, and though it makes one very uncomfortable, prevents the
advance of the disease. Hearing of this influenza, it occurred to
me that this might prove remedial; and perhaps a stronger
exhibition - injections of cocaine, for instance - still better.
If on my return I find myself let in for this epidemic, which seems
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