| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Frankenstein by Mary Shelley: exercise and amusement would then drive away incipient disease; and
I promised myself both of these when my creation should be complete.
Chapter 5
It was on a dreary night of November that I beheld the
accomplishment of my toils. With an anxiety that almost
amounted to agony, I collected the instruments of life around me,
that I might infuse a spark of being into the lifeless thing that
lay at my feet. It was already one in the morning; the rain pattered
dismally against the panes, and my candle was nearly burnt out, when,
by the glimmer of the half-extinguished light, I saw the dull
yellow eye of the creature open; it breathed hard, and a convulsive
Frankenstein |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Democracy In America, Volume 1 by Alexis de Toqueville: States - The sovereignty of these States restricted by the laws,
and the interpretation of the laws - Consequently, the danger of
the several States is more apparent than real.
As the Constitution of the United States recognized two
distinct powers in presence of each other, represented in a
judicial point of view by two distinct classes of courts of
justice, the utmost care which could be taken in defining their
separate jurisdictions would have been insufficient to prevent
frequent collisions between those tribunals. The question then
arose to whom the right of deciding the competency of each court
was to be referred.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad: then life is a greater riddle than some of us think it to be.
I was within a hair's breadth of the last opportunity for pronouncement,
and I found with humiliation that probably I would have nothing to say.
This is the reason why I affirm that Kurtz was a remarkable man.
He had something to say. He said it. Since I had peeped over the edge
myself, I understand better the meaning of his stare, that could not see
the flame of the candle, but was wide enough to embrace the whole universe,
piercing enough to penetrate all the hearts that beat in the darkness.
He had summed up--he had judged. `The horror!' He was a remarkable man.
After all, this was the expression of some sort of belief; it had candour,
it had conviction, it had a vibrating note of revolt in its whisper,
Heart of Darkness |
