| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Pathology of Lying, Etc. by William and Mary Healy: possessions her fancy chose. Many prominent physicians examined
her and were unable to decide as to her responsibility; judges
and others said she was a willful deceiver, a refined swindler.
Delbruck, looking deeper, found that she was suffering from
hysteria, having hystero-epileptic seizures with following
delirium, or rather twilight states. Though her delinquencies
seemed to show cunning and skill, a careful investigation
revealed the fact that this was merely aberrant. Generally her
thieving was undertaken in feebleminded fashion; many times she
stole things worthless to herself. Evidences of her pathological
mentality were that she would give orders for groceries, would
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from A Book of Remarkable Criminals by H. B. Irving: which an honest, honourable man is by force of another's
suggestion converted into a criminal are psychologically
remarkable. It is to be expected that we should look in the
annals of real crime for confirmation of the truth to life of
stories such as these, told in fiction or drama.
The strongest influence, under which the naturally non-criminal
person may be tempted in violation of instinct and better nature
to the commission of a crime, is that of love or passion.
Examples of this kind are frequent in the annals of crime. There
is none more striking than that of the Widow Gras and Natalis
Gaudry. Here a man, brave, honest, of hitherto irreproachable
A Book of Remarkable Criminals |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Nada the Lily by H. Rider Haggard: killed a certain Mopo. How came it, O Bulalio, that you were his son?"
"Mopo is dead," quoth Umslopogaas again; "he is dead with all his
house, his kraal is stamped flat, and that is why I hated the Black
One, and therefore I hate Dingaan, his brother, and will be as are
Mopo and the house of Mopo before I pay him tribute of a single ox."
All this while I had spoken to Umslopogaas in a feigned voice, my
father, but now I spoke again and in my own voice, saying:--
"So! Now you speak from your heart, young man, and by digging I have
reached the root of the matter. It is because of this dead dog of a
Mopo that you defy the king."
Umslopogaas heard the voice, and trembled no more with anger, but
Nada the Lily |
