| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Hiero by Xenophon: revenues to flow more copiously--by keeping your own private
capital[4] employed, or by means devised to make the resources of the
entire state[5] productive?
[4] Reading {idia}, al. {idia}, = "your capital privately employed."
[5] Lit. "of all citizens alike," "every single member of the state."
And next to speak of that which people hold to be the flower of
institutions, a pursuit both noble in itself and best befitting a
great man--I mean the art of breeding chariot-horses[6]--which would
reflect the greater lustre on you, that you personally[7] should train
and send to the great festal gatherings[8] more chariots than any
Hellene else? or rather that your state should boast more racehorse-
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Lady Windermere's Fan by Oscar Wilde: degraded! YOU don't feel anything. I feel stained, utterly
stained. You can't realise how hideous the last six months seems
to me now - every kiss you have given me is tainted in my memory.
LORD WINDERMERE. [Crossing to her.] Don't say that, Margaret. I
never loved any one in the whole world but you.
LADY WINDERMERE. [Rises.] Who is this woman, then? Why do you
take a house for her?
LORD WINDERMERE. I did not take a house for her.
LADY WINDERMERE. You gave her the money to do it, which is the
same thing.
LORD WINDERMERE. Margaret, as far as I have known Mrs. Erlynne -
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain: slicing bacon for breakfast, Tom and Huck asked him
to hold on a minute; they stepped to a promising nook
in the river-bank and threw in their lines; almost im-
mediately they had reward. Joe had not had time to
get impatient before they were back again with some
handsome bass, a couple of sun-perch and a small
catfish -- provisions enough for quite a family. They
fried the fish with the bacon, and were astonished; for no
fish had ever seemed so delicious before. They did not
know that the quicker a fresh-water fish is on the fire
after he is caught the better he is; and they reflected
 The Adventures of Tom Sawyer |