| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Chronicles of the Canongate by Walter Scott: and former habits of life, no one doubted that in one way or
other she had been the cause of the catastrophe, and Hamish Bean
was considered, in the slaughter which he had committed, rather
as the instrument than as the accomplice of his mother.
This general opinion of his countrymen was of little service to
the unfortunate Hamish. As his captain, Green Colin, understood
the manners and habits of his country, he had no difficulty in
collecting from Hamish the particulars accompanying his supposed
desertion, and the subsequent death of the non-commissioned
officer. He felt the utmost compassion for a youth, who had thus
fallen a victim to the extravagant and fatal fondness of a
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Gobseck by Honore de Balzac: do you think of his probity?'
" 'M. le Comte,' said I, 'Gobseck is my benefactor--at fifteen per
cent,' I added, laughing. 'But his avarice does not authorize me to
paint him to the life for a stranger's benefit.'
" 'Speak out, sir. Your frankness cannot injure Gobseck or yourself. I
do not expect to find an angel in a pawnbroker.'
" 'Daddy Gobseck,' I began, 'is intimately convinced of the truth of
the principle which he takes for a rule of life. In his opinion, money
is a commodity which you may sell cheap or dear, according to
circumstances, with a clear conscience. A capitalist, by charging a
high rate of interest, becomes in his eyes a secured partner by
Gobseck |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain: No vestige of Hat Island is left now; every shred of it is washed away.
I do not even remember what part of the river it used to be in,
except that it was between St. Louis and Cairo somewhere.
It was a bad region--all around and about Hat Island, in early days.
A farmer who lived on the Illinois shore there, said that twenty-nine
steamboats had left their bones strung along within sight from his house.
Between St. Louis and Cairo the steamboat wrecks average one to the mile;--
two hundred wrecks, altogether.
I could recognize big changes from Commerce down. Beaver Dam Rock was
out in the middle of the river now, and throwing a prodigious 'break;'
it used to be close to the shore, and boats went down outside of it.
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