| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Twenty Years After by Alexandre Dumas: to be certain that the duke would not stir. However, the
duke contrived to hide the ball under his bolster and as
soon as the door was closed he tore off the cover of the
ball with his teeth and found underneath the following
letter:
My Lord, -- Your friends are watching over you and the hour
of your deliverance is at hand. Ask day after to-morrow to
have a pie supplied you by the new confectioner opposite the
castle, and who is no other than Noirmont, your former
maitre d'hotel. Do not open the pie till you are alone. I
hope you will be satisfied with its contents.
Twenty Years After |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from On Revenues by Xenophon: clearly to my mind, which is that the country itself is made by nature
to provide the amplest resources. And with a view to establishing the
truth of this initial proposition I will describe the physical
features of Attica.
In the first place, the extraordinary mildness of the climate is
proved by the actual products of the soil. Numerous plants which in
many parts of the world appear as stunted leafless growths are here
fruit-bearing. And as with the soil so with the sea indenting our
coasts, the varied productivity of which is exceptionally great. Again
with regard to those kindly fruits of earth[3] which Providence
bestows on man season by season, one and all they commence earlier and
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Wife, et al by Anton Chekhov: for my celebrity or my rank.
Visitors do not come to me every day now. I will only mention the
visits of Nikolay and Pyotr Ignatyevitch. Nikolay usually comes
to me on holidays, with some pretext of business, though really
to see me. He arrives very much exhilarated, a thing which never
occurs to him in the winter.
"What have you to tell me?" I ask, going out to him in the hall.
"Your Excellency!" he says, pressing his hand to his heart and
looking at me with the ecstasy of a lover -- "your Excellency!
God be my witness! Strike me dead on the spot! _Gaudeamus egitur
juventus!_"
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