| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from A Voyage to Abyssinia by Father Lobo: husbands have not even the liberty of complaining; and certainly to
support injuries of this kind without complaining requires a degree
of patience which few men can boast of. The viceroy's virtue was
not proof against this temptation. He fell into a deep melancholy,
and resolved to be revenged on his father-in-law. He knew the
present temper of the people, that those of the greatest interest
and power were by no means pleased with the changes of religion, and
only waited for a fair opportunity to revolt; and that these
discontents were everywhere heightened by the monks and clergy.
Encouraged by these reflections, he was always talking of the just
reasons he had to complain of the Emperor, and gave them sufficient
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Battle of the Books by Jonathan Swift: one syllable of the matter? And is any man worse received upon
that score, or does he find his want of nominal faith a
disadvantage to him in the pursuit of any civil or military
employment? What if there be an old dormant statute or two against
him, are they not now obsolete, to a degree, that Empson and Dudley
themselves, if they were now alive, would find it impossible to put
them in execution?
It is likewise urged, that there are, by computation, in this
kingdom, above ten thousand parsons, whose revenues, added to those
of my lords the bishops, would suffice to maintain at least two
hundred young gentlemen of wit and pleasure, and free-thinking,
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Two Brothers by Honore de Balzac: During his childhood this disposition was so like torpor that his
father grew uneasy about him. The remarkable size of the head and the
width of the brow roused a fear that the child might be liable to
water on the brain. His distressful face, whose originality was
thought ugliness by those who had no eye for the moral value of a
countenance, wore rather a sullen expression during his childhood. The
features, which developed later in life, were pinched, and the close
attention the child paid to what went on about him still further
contracted them. Philippe flattered his mother's vanity, but Joseph
won no compliments. Philippe sparkled with the clever sayings and
lively answers that lead parents to believe their boys will turn out
|
