| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson by Robert Louis Stevenson: you're the only poet in the world.
Your statement about your initials, it will be seen, I pass over in
contempt and silence. When once I have made up my mind, let me
tell you, sir, there lives no pock-pudding who can change it. Your
anger I defy. Your unmanly reference to a well-known statesman I
puff from me, sir, like so much vapour. Weg is your name; Weg. W
E G.
My enthusiasm has kind of dropped from me. I envy you your wife,
your home, your child - I was going to say your cat. There would
be cats in my home too if I could but get it. I may seem to you
'the impersonation of life,' but my life is the impersonation of
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from On the Duty of Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau: The standing army is only an arm of the standing government.
The government itself, which is only the mode which the people
have chosen to execute their will, is equally liable to be abused
and perverted before the people can act through it. Witness the
present Mexican war, the work of comparatively a few individuals
using the standing government as their tool; for in the outset,
the people would not have consented to this measure.
This American government--what is it but a tradition,
though a recent one, endeavoring to transmit itself
unimpaired to posterity, but each instant losing some of its
integrity? It has not the vitality and force of a single
On the Duty of Civil Disobedience |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Salammbo by Gustave Flaubert: At the news of the disaster Carthage had leaped, as it were, with
anger and hate; the Suffet would have been less execrated if he had
allowed himself to be conquered from the first.
But time and money were lacking for the hire of other Mercenaries. As
to a levy of soldiers in the town, how were they to be equipped?
Hamilcar had taken all the arms! and then who was to command them? The
best captains were down yonder with him! Meanwhile, some men
despatched by the Suffet arrived in the streets with shouts. The Great
Council were roused by them, and contrived to make them disappear.
It was an unnecessary precaution; every one accused Barca of having
behaved with slackness. He ought to have annihilated the Mercenaries
Salammbo |
