| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Manon Lescaut by Abbe Prevost: fancy you a Jansenist[1]. `I know not of what sect I am,'
replied I, `nor do I indeed very clearly see to which I ought to
belong; but I cannot help feeling the truth of this at least of
their tenets.'
[1] The first proposition of the Jansenists was, that there are
divine precepts which good men, notwithstanding their desire to
observe them, are nevertheless absolutely unable to obey: God not
having given them such a measure of grace as is essentially
necessary to render them capable of obedience.--Mosheim's Eccles.
Hist., ii. 397.
"One effect of our conversation was to revive my friend's pity
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from King Henry VI by William Shakespeare: And Somerset, with Oxford, fled to her;
If she have time to breathe, be well assur'd,
Her faction will be full as strong as ours.
KING EDWARD.
We are advertis'd by our loving friends
That they do hold their course toward Tewkesbury.
We, having now the best at Barnet field,
Will thither straight, for willingness rids way;
And, as we march, our strength will be augmented
In every county as we go along.--
Strike up the drum! cry 'Courage!' and away.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from When the World Shook by H. Rider Haggard: the path behind as though in farewell; instinct with a horrible
life, with a hideous and gigantic grace, that titanic Terror
whirled onwards to the mark of fate.
At the moment nothing could persuade me that it was not alive
and did not know its awful mission. Visions flashed across my
mind. I thought of the peoples of the world sleeping in their
beds, or going about their business, or engaged even in the work
of war. I thought of the ships upon the seas steaming steadily
towards their far-off ports. Then I thought of what presently
might happen to them, of the tremors followed by convulsions, of
the sudden crashing down of cities, such as we had seen in the
When the World Shook |
