| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Maggie: A Girl of the Streets by Stephen Crane: drew his legs carefully beneath him.
The man puffed his pipe calmly and put his great mudded boots
on the back part of the stove.
"Go teh hell," he murmured, tranquilly.
The woman screamed and shook her fists before her husband's
eyes. The rough yellow of her face and neck flared suddenly
crimson. She began to howl.
He puffed imperturbably at his pipe for a time, but finally
arose and began to look out at the window into the darkening chaos
of back yards.
"You've been drinkin', Mary," he said. "You'd better let up
Maggie: A Girl of the Streets |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Familiar Studies of Men and Books by Robert Louis Stevenson: good; the prophet, in this doctrine, has only to cry "Tally-
ho," and mankind will break into a gallop on the road to El
Dorado. Perhaps, to another class of minds, it may look like
the result of the somewhat cynical reflection that you will
not make a kind man out of one who is unkind by any precepts
under heaven; tempered by the belief that, in natural
circumstances, the large majority is well disposed. Thence
it would follow, that if you can only get every one to feel
more warmly and act more courageously, the balance of results
will be for good.
So far, you see, the doctrine is pretty coherent as a
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Fantastic Fables by Ambrose Bierce: new era, adjourned with unabated enthusiasm, shouting, "Place aux
dames!" And Echo wearily replied, "Oh, damn."
The Ingenious Blackmailer
AN Inventor went to a King and was granted an audience, when the
following conversation ensued:
INVENTOR. - "May it please your Majesty, I have invented a rifle
that discharges lightning."
KING. - "Ah, you wish to sell me the secret."
INVENTOR. - "Yes; it will enable your army to overrun any nation
that is accessible."
KING. - "In order to get any good of my outlay for your invention,
Fantastic Fables |
