| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from War and the Future by H. G. Wells: whole fabric of Italian commercial life. But it has already
liberated itself from German influence, and the bulk of its
capital is Italian. Nevertheless I found discussion ranging
about firstly what the Banca Commerciale essentially /was/,
secondly what it might /become/, thirdly what it might
/do/, and fourthly what, if anything, had to be done to it.
It is a novelty to an English mind to find banking thus mixed up
with politics, but it is not a novelty in Italy. All over
Venetia there are agricultural banks which are said to be
"clerical." I grappled with this mystery. "How are they
clerical?" I asked Captain Pirelli. "Do they lend money on bad
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Atheist's Mass by Honore de Balzac: be able to see the sun. The man who on hearing a diplomate he has
saved ask, "How is the Emperor?" could say, "The courtier is
alive; the man will follow!"--that man is not merely a surgeon or
a physician, he is prodigiously witty also. Hence a patient and
diligent student of human nature will admit Desplein's exorbitant
pretensions, and believe--as he himself believed--that he might
have been no less great as a minister than he was as a surgeon.
Among the riddles which Desplein's life presents to many of his
contemporaries, we have chosen one of the most interesting,
because the answer is to be found at the end of the narrative,
and will avenge him for some foolish charges.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Roads of Destiny by O. Henry: It only remained for me to arrive with my force and my thousand
rifles, and for himself to come forward and proclaim himself the
people's saviour, to overthrow Cruz in a single day. There would be
but a half-hearted resistance from the six hundred government troops
stationed in the capital. Th country was ours. He presumed that by
this time my steamer had arrived at Quintana's camp. He proposed the
eighteenth of July for the attack. That would give us six days in
which to strike camp and march to Aguas Frias. In the meantime Don
Rafael remained my good friend and /compadre en la cause de la
libertad/.
"On the morning of the 14th we began our march toward the sea-
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