| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift: thereby have avoided such a perpetual scene of misfortunes, as
they have since gone through, by the oppression of landlords, the
impossibility of paying rent without money or trade, the want of
common sustenance, with neither house nor cloaths to cover them
from the inclemencies of the weather, and the most inevitable
prospect of intailing the like, or greater miseries, upon their
breed for ever.
I profess, in the sincerity of my heart, that I have not the
least personal interest in endeavouring to promote this necessary
work, having no other motive than the publick good of my country,
by advancing our trade, providing for infants, relieving the
A Modest Proposal |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Walden by Henry David Thoreau: might improve them. There are some who complain most energetically
and inconsolably of any, because they are, as they say, doing their
duty. I also have in my mind that seemingly wealthy, but most
terribly impoverished class of all, who have accumulated dross, but
know not how to use it, or get rid of it, and thus have forged their
own golden or silver fetters.
If I should attempt to tell how I have desired to spend my life
in years past, it would probably surprise those of my readers who
are somewhat acquainted with its actual history; it would certainly
astonish those who know nothing about it. I will only hint at some
of the enterprises which I have cherished.
Walden |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Story of an African Farm by Olive Schreiner: down himself on the floor of the wagon near the back. He leaned his head
against the kartel, and listened to the chewing of the tired oxen, and to
the crackling of the fire, till, overpowered by weariness, he fell into a
heavy sleep. Then all was very still in the wagon. The dog slept on his
mistress' feet, and only two mosquitoes, creeping in through a gap in the
front sail, buzzed drearily round.
The night was grown very old when from a long, peaceful sleep Lyndall
awoke. The candle burnt at her head, the dog lay on her feet; but he
shivered; it seemed as though a coldness struck up to him from his resting-
place. She lay with folded hands, looking upward; and she heard the oxen
chewing, and she saw the two mosquitoes buzzing drearily round and round,
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