| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Sylvie and Bruno by Lewis Carroll: a propos of my having insisted on saving her the trouble of carrying
a cup of tea across the room to the Earl, "if cups of tea had no weight
at all! Then perhaps ladies would sometimes be permitted to carry them
for short distances!"
"One can easily imagine a situation," said Arthur, "where things would
necessarily have no weight, relatively to each other, though each would
have its usual weight, looked at by itself."
"Some desperate paradox!" said the Earl. "Tell us how it could be.
We shall never guess it."
"Well, suppose this house, just as it is, placed a few billion miles
above a planet, and with nothing else near enough to disturb it:
Sylvie and Bruno |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Give Me Liberty Or Give Me Death by Patrick Henry: reconciliation? Have we shown ourselves so unwilling to be reconciled that
force must be called in to win back our love? Let us not deceive ourselves,
sir. These are the implements of war and subjugation; the last arguments to
which kings resort. I ask gentlemen, sir, what means this martial array, if
its purpose be not to force us to submission? Can gentlemen assign any other
possible motive for it? Has Great Britain any enemy, in this quarter of
the world, to call for all this accumulation of navies and armies? No, sir,
she has none. They are meant for us: they can be meant for no other.
They are sent over to bind and rivet upon us those chains which the British
ministry have been so long forging. And what have we to oppose to them?
Shall we try argument? Sir, we have been trying that for the last ten years.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from On Revenues by Xenophon: [63] I adopt Zurborg's correction, {prosphora} for {eisphora}, as
obviously right. See above, iv. 23.
If, at this point, I may assume my proposals to have been carried into
effect, I think I can promise, not only that our city shall be
relieved from a financial strain, but that she shall make a great
stride in orderliness and in tactical organisation, she shall grow in
martial spirit and readiness for war. I anticipate that those who are
under orders to go through gymnastic training will devote themselves
with a new zeal to the details of the training school, now that they
will receive a larger maintenance whilst[64] under the orders of the
trainer in the torch race. So again those on garrison duty in the
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