| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Works of Samuel Johnson by Samuel Johnson: shepherds, begun with a quarrel of which some particulars
might well be spared, carried on with sprightliness
and elegance, and terminated at last in a reconciliation:
but, surely, whether the invectives with which
they attack each other be true or false, they are too
much degraded from the dignity of pastoral innocence;
and instead of rejoicing that they are both
victorious, I should not have grieved could they
have been both defeated.
The poem to Pollio is, indeed, of another kind:
it is filled with images at once splendid and pleasing,
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Phantasmagoria and Other Poems by Lewis Carroll: He'll raise his head and look about
With eyes of wrath and wonder.
"And here you must on no pretence
Make the first observation.
Wait for the Victim to commence:
No Ghost of any common sense
Begins a conversation.
"If he should say 'HOW CAME YOU HERE?'
(The way that YOU began, Sir,)
In such a case your course is clear -
'ON THE BAT'S BACK, MY LITTLE DEAR!'
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from A Legend of Montrose by Walter Scott: him, in terming Prince Charles, the Pretender, or by saying
anything derogatory to the dignity of King George. Further, it
must not be denied, that when the day of receiving his dividends
came round, the Sergeant was apt to tarry longer at the Wallace
Arms of an evening, than was consistent with strict temperance,
or indeed with his worldly interest; for upon these occasions,
his compotators sometimes contrived to flatter his partialities
by singing jacobite songs, and drinking confusion to Bonaparte,
and the health of the Duke of Wellington, until the Sergeant was
not only flattered into paying the whole reckoning, but
occasionally induced to lend small sums to his interested
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