| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne: In some other form, perhaps, I may hereafter develop these
effects. Suffice it here to say that a Custom-House officer of
long continuance can hardly be a very praiseworthy or respectable
personage, for many reasons; one of them, the tenure by which he
holds his situation, and another, the very nature of his
business, which -- though, I trust, an honest one -- is of such a
sort that he does not share in the united effort of mankind.
An effect -- which I believe to be observable, more or less, in
every individual who has occupied the position -- is, that while
he leans on the mighty arm of the Republic, his own proper
The Scarlet Letter |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Adieu by Honore de Balzac: dwelling made the place an absolute solitude. The main building,
formerly occupied by the monks, faced south. The park seemed to have
about forty acres. Near the house lay a succession of green meadows,
charmingly crossed by several clear rivulets, with here and there a
piece of water naturally placed without the least apparent artifice.
Trees of elegant shape and varied foliage were distributed about.
Grottos, cleverly managed, and massive terraces with dilapidated steps
and rusty railings, gave a peculiar character to this lone retreat.
Art had harmonized her constructions with the picturesque effects of
nature. Human passions seemed to die at the feet of those great trees,
which guarded this asylum from the tumult of the world as they shaded
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Walden by Henry David Thoreau: so much about our beans for seed, and not be concerned at all about
a new generation of men? We should really be fed and cheered if
when we met a man we were sure to see that some of the qualities
which I have named, which we all prize more than those other
productions, but which are for the most part broadcast and floating
in the air, had taken root and grown in him. Here comes such a
subtile and ineffable quality, for instance, as truth or justice,
though the slightest amount or new variety of it, along the road.
Our ambassadors should be instructed to send home such seeds as
these, and Congress help to distribute them over all the land. We
should never stand upon ceremony with sincerity. We should never
Walden |
