The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from A Distinguished Provincial at Paris by Honore de Balzac: to return in triumph to Angouleme--how can you suppose that any of
them will forgive Lucien for his attacks on them? They dropped him
down in the Royalist ranks to crush him out of existence. At this
moment they are looking round for any excuse for not fulfilling the
promises they made to that boy. Help them to some; you will do the
greatest possible service to the two women, and some day or other they
will remember it. I am in their secrets; I was surprised to find how
much they hated the little fellow. This Lucien might have rid himself
of his bitterest enemy (Mme. de Bargeton) by desisting from his
attacks on terms which a woman loves to grant--do you take me? He is
young and handsome, he should have drowned her hate in torrents of
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from King Henry VI by William Shakespeare: Pluck a red rose from off this thorn with me.
WARWICK.
I love no colours, and without all colour
Of base insinuating flattery
I pluck this white rose with Plantagenet.
SUFFOLK.
I pluck this red rose with young Somerset,
And say withal I think he held the right.
VERNON.
Stay, lords and gentlemen, and pluck no more,
Till you conclude that he, upon whose side
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Common Sense by Thomas Paine: a separation--But leaving the moral part to private reflection,
I shall chiefly confine my farther remarks to the following heads.
First. That it is the interest of America to be separated from Britain.
Secondly. Which is the easiest and most practicable plan,
RECONCILIATION OR INDEPENDANCE? With some occasional remarks.
In support of the first, I could, if I judged it proper,
produce the opinion of some of the ablest and most experienced men
on this continent; and whose sentiments, on that head, are not yet
publicly known. It is in reality a self-evident position:
For no nation in a state of foreign dependance, limited in its commerce,
and cramped and fettered in its legislative powers, can ever arrive
Common Sense |