| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Wrecker by Stevenson & Osbourne: as is usual with Findlay, and all marked and scribbled over
with corrections and additions--several books of navigation, a
signal code, and an Admiralty book of a sort of orange hue,
called _Islands of the Eastern Pacific Ocean, Vol. III._, which
appeared from its imprint to be the latest authority, and showed
marks of frequent consultation in the passages about the French
Frigate Shoals, the Harman, Cure, Pearl, and Hermes reefs,
Lisiansky Island, Ocean Island, and the place where we then
lay--Brooks or Midway. A volume of Macaulay's _Essays_
and a shilling Shakespeare led the van of the belles lettres; the
rest were novels: several Miss Braddons--of course, _Aurora
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Men of Iron by Howard Pyle: It was not until the end of July that the High Court of Chivalry
rendered its judgment. There were many unusual points in the
case, some of which bore heavily against Lord Falworth, some of
which were in his favor. He was very ably defended by the lawyers
whom the Earl of Mackworth had engaged upon his side;
nevertheless, under ordinary circumstances, the judgment, no
doubt, would have been quickly rendered against him. As it was,
however, the circumstances were not ordinary, and it was rendered
in his favor. The Court besought the King to grant the ordeal by
battle, to accept Lord Falworth's champion, and to appoint the
time and place for the meeting.
Men of Iron |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from House of Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne: its own rulers. The popular voice, at the next gubernatorial
election, though loud as thunder, will be really but an echo of
what these gentlemen shall speak, under their breath, at your
friend's festive board. They meet to decide upon their candidate.
This little knot of subtle schemers will control the convention,
and, through it, dictate to the party. And what worthier candidate,
--more wise and learned, more noted for philanthropic liberality,
truer to safe principles, tried oftener by public trusts, more
spotless in private character, with a larger stake in the common
welfare, and deeper grounded, by hereditary descent, in the faith
and practice of the Puritans,--what man can be presented for the
House of Seven Gables |
