| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, 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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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Hunting of the Snark by Lewis Carroll: While he served out additional rations).
"We have sailed many months, we have sailed many weeks,
(Four weeks to the month you may mark),
But never as yet ('tis your Captain who speaks)
Have we caught the least glimpse of a Snark!
"We have sailed many weeks, we have sailed many days,
(Seven days to the week I allow),
But a Snark, on the which we might lovingly gaze,
We have never beheld till now!
"Come, listen, my men, while I tell you again
The five unmistakable marks
The Hunting of the Snark |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Court Life in China by Isaac Taylor Headland: Tientsin University which had been begun by Li Hung-chang some
ten or a dozen years before. It had a good course of study and
was turning out a large number of young graduates for whom there
ought to be a better future than that of interpreters in the
various business houses of that and other cities. He therefore
called Dr. Tenny to him and inquired particularly about the
system of public school education throughout the United States.
"What is to prevent our putting into operation such a system
throughout this province?" asked the Viceroy.
"Nothing," answered Dr. Tenny, "except to be willing to submit to
the conditions."
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