| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Black Dwarf by Walter Scott: opinions which Mr. Ratcliffe did not hesitate distinctly to
express.
Nothing seemed to vex Mr. Vere more than when strangers indicated
any observation of the state of tutelage under which he appeared
to labour. When it was noticed by Sir Frederick, or any of his
intimates, he sometimes repelled their remarks haughtily and
indignantly, and sometimes endeavoured to evade them, by saying,
with a forced laugh, "That Ratcliffe knew his own importance, but
that he was the most honest and skilful fellow in the world; and
that it would be impossible for him to manage his English affairs
without his advice and assistance." Such was the person who
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Memoir of Fleeming Jenkin by Robert Louis Stevenson: days of his life. It commenced with a well-sustained fire of
letters on each side about the physical qualities of submarine
cables, and the practical results attainable in the way of rapid
signalling through them. Jenkin used excellently the valuable
opportunities for experiment allowed him by Newall, and his partner
Lewis Gordon, at their Birkenhead factory. Thus he began definite
scientific investigation of the copper resistance of the conductor,
and the insulating resistance and specific inductive capacity of
its gutta-percha coating, in the factory, in various stages of
manufacture; and he was the very first to introduce systematically
into practice the grand system of absolute measurement founded in
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from A Straight Deal by Owen Wister: discretion is a quality more common to the French than to ourselves or
our relations: I mean something a little more than discretion, I mean
esprit de conduits, for which it is hard to find a translation.
Upon my first two points, the right to privacy and the mother-tongue, I
have lingered long, feeling these to be not only of prime importance and
wide application, but also to be quite beyond my power to make lucid in
short compass. I trust that they have been made lucid. I must now get on
to further anecdotes, illustrating other and less subtle causes of
misunderstanding; and I feel somewhat like the author of Don Juan when he
exclaims that he almost wishes he had ne'er begun that very remarkable
poem. I renounce all pretense to the French virtue of discretion.
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