| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Old Indian Legends by Zitkala-Sa: distant howling of wolves broke the quiet of the village. But the
lull between midnight and dawn was short indeed. Very early the
oval-shaped door-flaps were thrust aside and many brown faces
peered out of the wigwams toward the top of the highest bluff.
Now the sun rose up out of the east. The red painted avenger
stood ready within the camp ground for the flying of the red eagle.
He appeared, that terrible bird! He hovered over the round village
as if he could pounce down upon it and devour the whole tribe.
When the first arrow shot up into the sky the anxious watchers
thrust a hand quickly over their half-uttered "hinnu!" The second
and the third arrows flew upward but missed by a wide space the red
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Plutarch's Lives by A. H. Clough: sustenance in exile for the liberty of his country. Besides
this, Brutus and Cassius, when they fled from Rome, could not
live safe or quiet, being condemned to death and pursued, and
were thus of necessity forced to take arms and hazard their
lives in their own defense, to save themselves, rather than
their country. On the other hand, Dion enjoyed more ease, was
more safe, and his life more pleasant in his banishment, than
was the tyrant's who had banished him, when he flew to action,
and ran the risk of all to save Sicily.
Take notice, too, that it was not the same thing for the
Sicilians to be freed from Dionysius, and for the Romans to be
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Art of Writing by Robert Louis Stevenson: 'Well, well,' said Mr. Thomson, 'we shall see.'
Footnotes:
(1) First published in the Contemporary Review, April 1885
(2) Milton.
(3) Milton.
(4) Milton.
(5) As PVF will continue to haunt us through our English
examples, take, by way of comparison, this Latin verse, of
which it forms a chief adornment, and do not hold me
answerable for the all too Roman freedom of the sense: 'Hanc
volo, quae facilis, quae palliolata vagatur.'
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