| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Essays of Francis Bacon by Francis Bacon: nians had it for a flash. The Gauls, Germans,
Goths, Saxons, Normans, and others, had it for a
time. The Turks have it at this day, though in great
declination. Of Christian Europe, they that have it
are, in effect, only the Spaniards. But it is so
plain, that every man profiteth in that, he most
intendeth, that it needeth not to be stood upon. It
is enough to point at it; that no nation which doth
not directly profess arms, may look to have great-
ness fall into their mouths. And on the other side,
it is a most certain oracle of time, that those states
Essays of Francis Bacon |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Virginibus Puerisque by Robert Louis Stevenson: kinship. A little while ago everybody, from Hazlitt and John
Wilson down to the imbecile creature who scribbled his
register on the fly-leaves of BOXIANA, felt a more or less
shamefaced satisfaction in the exploits of prize-fighters.
And the exploits of the Admirals are popular to the same
degree, and tell in all ranks of society. Their sayings and
doings stir English blood like the sound of a trumpet; and if
the Indian Empire, the trade of London, and all the outward
and visible ensigns of our greatness should pass away, we
should still leave behind us a durable monument of what we
were in these sayings and doings of the English Admirals.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Reign of King Edward the Third by William Shakespeare: And thence the hot reflection doth rebound
Against the breast, and burns my heart within.
Ah, what a world of descant makes my soul
Upon this voluntary ground of love!--
Come, Lodowick, hast thou turned thy ink to gold?
If not, write but in letters Capital
My mistress' name, and it will gild thy paper:
Read, Lord, read;
Fill thou the empty hollows of mine ears
With the sweet hearing of thy poetry.
LODOWICK.
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