| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from An Ideal Husband by Oscar Wilde: voice. I left the table as soon as I had my second cup of tea, I
need hardly say. But his violent language could be heard all over
the house! I trust, Gertrude, that Sir Robert is not like that
LADY CHILTERN. But I am very much interested in politics, Lady
Markby. I love to hear Robert talk about them.
LADY MARKBY. Well, I hope he is not as devoted to Blue Books as Sir
John is. I don't think they can be quite improving reading for any
one.
MRS. CHEVELEY [Languidly.] I have never read a Blue Book. I prefer
books . . . in yellow covers.
LADY MARKBY. [Genially unconscious.] Yellow is a gayer colour, is
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from A Legend of Montrose by Walter Scott: country, firing their guns, and discharging their arrows, at a
little distance from the enemy, who received the assault with the
most determined gallantry. Better provided with musketry than
their enemies, stationary also, and therefore taking the more
decisive aim, the fire of Argyle's followers was more destructive
than that which they sustained. The royal clans, perceiving
this, rushed to close quarters, and succeeded on two points in
throwing their enemies into disorder. With regular troops this
must have achieved a victory; but here Highlanders were opposed
to Highlanders, and the nature of the weapons, as well as the
agility of those who wielded them, was equal on both sides.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Lesser Hippias by Plato: particular writing, if this lost literature had been preserved to us.
These considerations lead us to adopt the following criteria of
genuineness: (1) That is most certainly Plato's which Aristotle attributes
to him by name, which (2) is of considerable length, of (3) great
excellence, and also (4) in harmony with the general spirit of the Platonic
writings. But the testimony of Aristotle cannot always be distinguished
from that of a later age (see above); and has various degrees of
importance. Those writings which he cites without mentioning Plato, under
their own names, e.g. the Hippias, the Funeral Oration, the Phaedo, etc.,
have an inferior degree of evidence in their favour. They may have been
supposed by him to be the writings of another, although in the case of
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