| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Letters from England by Elizabeth Davis Bancroft: who escorted me through a long narrow corridor the length of
Winthrop Place and consigned me to another who escorted me in his
turn, through another wider corridor to the foot of a flight of
stairs which I ascended and found another servant, who took my cloak
and showed me into the grand corridor or picture gallery; a noble
apartment of interminable length; and surrounded by pictures of the
best masters. General Bowles, the Master of the Household, came
forward to meet me, and Lord Byron, who is one of the Lords in
Waiting. I found Madam Lisboa already arrived, and soon came in
Lord and Lady Palmerston, the Duke of Norfolk, the Marquis and
Marchioness of Exeter, Lord and Lady Dalhousie, Lord Charles
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from A Straight Deal by Owen Wister: I have dwelt upon this matter here for a very definite reason, closely
connected with my main purpose. It's a favorite trick of our anti-British
friends to call England a "land-grabber." The way in which England has
grabbed land right along, all over the world, is monstrous, they say.
England has stolen what belonged to whites, and blacks, and bronzes, and
yellows, wherever she could lay her hands upon it, they say. England is a
criminal. They repeat this with great satisfaction, this land-grabbing
indictment. Most of them know little or nothing of the facts, couldn't
tell you the history of a single case. But what are the facts to the man
who asks, "What has England done in this war, anyway?" The word
"land-grabber" has been passed to him by German and Sinn Fein propaganda,
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Droll Stories, V. 1 by Honore de Balzac: historian, linguist, philosopher, archaeologist, and anatomist, and
each in no ordinary degree. In France, his work has long been regarded
as a classic--as a faithful picture of the last days of the moyen age,
when kings and princesses, brave gentlemen and haughty ladies laughed
openly at stories and jokes which are considered disgraceful by their
more fastidious descendants. In England the difficulties of the
language employed, and the quaintness and peculiarity of its style,
have placed it beyond the reach of all but those thoroughly acquainted
with the French of the sixteenth century. Taking into consideration
the vast amount of historical information enshrined in its pages, the
archaeological value which it must always possess for the student, and
Droll Stories, V. 1 |
