| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Early Short Fiction of Edith Wharton by Edith Wharton: question at a time.
"Up the drive? At this hour?" Mary went to the door herself,
and glanced across the court through the long tunnel of bare
limes. But its perspective was as empty as when she had scanned
it on entering the house.
"Did Mr. Boyne leave no message?" she asked.
Trimmle seemed to surrender herself to a last struggle with the
forces of chaos.
"No, Madam. He just went out with the gentleman."
"The gentleman? What gentleman?" Mary wheeled about, as if to
front this new factor.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Menexenus by Plato: the land which is their mother, and that will be a way of praising their
noble birth.
The country is worthy to be praised, not only by us, but by all mankind;
first, and above all, as being dear to the Gods. This is proved by the
strife and contention of the Gods respecting her. And ought not the
country which the Gods praise to be praised by all mankind? The second
praise which may be fairly claimed by her, is that at the time when the
whole earth was sending forth and creating diverse animals, tame and wild,
she our mother was free and pure from savage monsters, and out of all
animals selected and brought forth man, who is superior to the rest in
understanding, and alone has justice and religion. And a great proof that
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from A Straight Deal by Owen Wister: matches his school-implanted prejudice, just as it has rejected every fact
that does not match it. There is absolutely no other way to explain the
American habit of speaking ill of England and well of France. Several
times in the past, France has been flagrantly hostile to us. But there was
Lafayette, there was Rochambeau, and the great service France did us then
against England. Hence from our school histories we have a pro-French
complex. Under its workings we automatically remember every good turn
France has done us and automatically forget the evil turns. Again try the
experiment yourself. How many Americans do you think that you will find
who can recall, or who even know when you recall to them the insolent
and meddlesome Citizen Genet, envoy of the French Republic, and how
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