| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin: of booksellers enabled me sometimes to borrow a small one, which I
was careful to return soon and clean. Often I sat up in my room
reading the greatest part of the night, when the book was borrowed
in the evening and to be returned early in the morning, lest it
should be missed or wanted.
And after some time an ingenious tradesman, Mr. Matthew Adams, who had
a pretty collection of books, and who frequented our printing-house,
took notice of me, invited me to his library, and very kindly lent
me such books as I chose to read. I now took a fancy to poetry,
and made some little pieces; my brother, thinking it might turn
to account, encouraged me, and put me on composing occasional ballads.
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians by Martin Luther: Jerome thinks that Paul is playing upon the name Galatians, deriving it from
the Hebrew word Galath, which means fallen or carried away, as though Paul
wanted to say, "You are true Galatians, i.e., fallen away in name and in
fact." Some believe that the Germans are descended from the Galatians. There
may be something to that. For the Germans are not unlike the Galatians in
their lack of constancy. At first we Germans are very enthusiastic, but
presently our emotions cool and we become slack. When the light of the Gospel
first came to us many were zealous, heard sermons greedily, and held the
ministry of God's Word in high esteem. But now that religion has been
reformed, many who formerly were such earnest disciples have discarded the
Word of God, have become sow-bellies like the foolish and inconsistent
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Z. Marcas by Honore de Balzac: fellow-lodger, and we never heard a sound in his room, in spite of the
thinness of the partition that divided us--one of those walls of lath
and plaster which are common in Paris houses.
Our room, a little over seven feet high, was hung with a vile cheap
paper sprigged with blue. The floor was painted, and knew nothing of
the polish given by the /frotteur's/ brush. By our beds there was only
a scrap of thin carpet. The chimney opened immediately to the roof,
and smoked so abominably that we were obliged to provide a stove at
our own expense. Our beds were mere painted wooden cribs like those in
schools; on the chimney shelf there were but two brass candlesticks,
with or without tallow candles in them, and our two pipes with some
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