| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Voyage of the Beagle by Charles Darwin: we retraced our steps. It was very wearisome work, as the
road generally ran across a glaring hot sandy plain, not
far from the coast. I noticed that each time the horse put
its foot on the fine siliceous sand, a gentle chirping noise
was produced. On the third day we took a different line,
and passed through the gay little village of Madre de Deos.
This is one of the principal lines of road in Brazil; yet it
was in so bad a state that no wheeled vehicle, excepting the
clumsy bullock-wagon, could pass along. In our whole journey
we did not cross a single bridge built of stone; and
those made of logs of wood were frequently so much out of
 The Voyage of the Beagle |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Twilight Land by Howard Pyle: hand. "Are you ready?" he asked.
"We are ready, and waiting," answered the three. Thereupon,
without another word, the graybeard fetched each of the dancers a
blow upon the head with might and main--One! two! three! crack!
crash! jingle!
Lo and behold! Instead of the three dancing men, there lay three
great heaps of gold upon the floor, and the spendthrift stood
staring like an owl. "There," said the old man, "take what you
want, and then go your way, and trouble me no more."
"Well," said the spendthrift, "of all the wonders that ever I
saw, this is the most wonderful! But how am I to carry my gold
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from On Revenues by Xenophon: capital."
[16] See Jebb, "Theophr." xxvi. 21.
[17] According to the ancient authorities the citizens of Athens
numbered about 21,000 at this date, which would give about 63,000
as the number of state-slaves contemplated for the purposes of the
scheme. See Zurborg, "Comm." p. 29. "At a census taken in B.C. 309
the number of slaves was returned at 400,000, and it does not seem
likely that there were fewer at any time during the classical
period."--"A Companion to School Classics" (James Gow), p. 101,
xiii. "Population of Attica."
With regard to the price then of the men themselves, it is obvious
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