| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Vailima Letters by Robert Louis Stevenson: damned glad of it. And this is not all. Last 'WAINIU,' when
I sent Fanny off to Fiji, I hear the wonderful news that the
Chief Justice is going to Fiji and the Colonies to improve
his mind. I showed my way of thought to his guest, Count
Wachtmeister, whom I have sent to you with a letter - he will
tell you all the news. Well, the Chief Justice stayed, but
they said he was to leave yesterday. I had intended to go
down, and see and warn him! But the President's house had
come up in the meanwhile, and I let them go to their doom,
which I am only anxious to see swiftly and (if it may be)
bloodlessly fall.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Contrast by Royall Tyler: cing the addresses of a thousand;--or that the finest
assemblage of features, the greatest taste in dress, the
genteelest address, or the most brilliant wit, cannot
eventually secure a coquette from contempt and
ridicule.
MANLY
And I have learned that probity, virtue, honour,
though they should not have received the polish of
Europe, will secure to an honest American the good
graces of his fair countrywomen, and, I hope, the
applause of THE PUBLIC.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Devil's Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce: conduct, to be independent is to be abnormal, to be abnormal is to be
detested. Wherefore the lexicographer adviseth a striving toward the
straiter [sic] resemblance of the Average Man than he hath to himself.
Whoso attaineth thereto shall have peace, the prospect of death and
the hope of Hell.
ABORIGINIES, n. Persons of little worth found cumbering the soil of a
newly discovered country. They soon cease to cumber; they fertilize.
ABRACADABRA.
By _Abracadabra_ we signify
An infinite number of things.
'Tis the answer to What? and How? and Why?
The Devil's Dictionary |
