| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Intentions by Oscar Wilde: problem. We are trying at present to stave off the coming crisis,
the coming revolution as my friends the Fabianists call it, by
means of doles and alms. Well, when the revolution or crisis
arrives, we shall be powerless, because we shall know nothing. And
so, Ernest, let us not be deceived. England will never be
civilised till she has added Utopia to her dominions. There is
more than one of her colonies that she might with advantage
surrender for so fair a land. What we want are unpractical people
who see beyond the moment, and think beyond the day. Those who try
to lead the people can only do so by following the mob. It is
through the voice of one crying in the wilderness that the ways of
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Illustrious Gaudissart by Honore de Balzac: premiums offered to him.
* * * * *
"Listen, my little Jenny," he said in a hackney-coach to a pretty
florist.
All truly great men delight in allowing themselves to be tyrannized
over by a feeble being, and Gaudissart had found his tyrant in Jenny.
He was bringing her home at eleven o'clock from the Gymnase, whither
he had taken her, in full dress, to a proscenium box on the first
tier.
"On my return, Jenny, I shall refurnish your room in superior style.
That big Matilda, who pesters you with comparisons and her real India
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Plutarch's Lives by A. H. Clough: himself had destroyed many others before. And this he did without
having either practiced or ever learnt the art of bending these trees,
to show that natural strength is above all art. This Sinnis had a
daughter of remarkable beauty and stature, called Perigune, who, when
her father was killed, fled, and was sought after everywhere by Theseus;
and coming into a place overgrown with brushwood shrubs, and asparagus-
thorn, there, in a childlike, innocent manner, prayed and begged them,
as if they understood her, to give her shelter, with vows that if she
escaped she would never cut them down nor burn them. But Theseus
calling upon her, and giving her his promise that he would use her with
respect, and offer her no injury, she came forth, and in due time bore
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