| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Essays of Francis Bacon by Francis Bacon: mulation are three. First, to lay asleep opposition,
and to surprise. For where a man's intentions are
published, it is an alarum, to call up all that are
against them. The second is, to reserve to a man's
self a fair retreat. For if a man engage himself by
a manifest declaration, he must go through or take
a fall. The third is, the better to discover the mind
of another. For to him that opens himself, men
will hardly show themselves adverse; but will fair
let him go on, and turn their freedom of speech, to
freedom of thought. And therefore it is a good
Essays of Francis Bacon |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Maria, or the Wrongs of Woman by Mary Wollstonecraft: own disappointment, or, most probably, actuated by the feelings
that had been petrified, not cooled, in all their sanguine fervour,
like a boiling torrent of lava suddenly dash ing into the sea, he
thought a marriage of mutual inclination (would envious stars permit
it) the only chance for happiness in this disastrous world. George
Venables had the reputation of being attentive to business, and my
father's example gave great weight to this circumstance; for habits
of order in business would, he conceived, extend to the regulation
of the affections in domestic life. George seldom spoke in my
uncle's company, except to utter a short, judicious question, or
to make a pertinent remark, with all due deference to his superior
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from A Pair of Blue Eyes by Thomas Hardy: Stephen winced at this rap. 'I have never formed a deep
attachment,' continued Knight. 'I never have found a woman worth
it. Nor have I been once engaged to be married.'
'You write as if you had been engaged a hundred times, if I may be
allowed to say so,' said Stephen in an injured tone.
'Yes, that may be. But, my dear Stephen, it is only those who
half know a thing that write about it. Those who know it
thoroughly don't take the trouble. All I know about women, or men
either, is a mass of generalities. I plod along, and occasionally
lift my eyes and skim the weltering surface of mankind lying
between me and the horizon, as a crow might; no more.'
A Pair of Blue Eyes |
