| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Scenes from a Courtesan's Life by Honore de Balzac: marriage, has made great sacrifices. and I have been enabled to
repurchase the lands of the Rubempres, to reconstitute the whole
estate. But I have found in my Paris lawyer a very clever man, who has
managed to save me from the extortionate terms that the holders would
have asked if they had known the name of the purchaser."
"Is there a chateau?" asked Clotilde, with too broad a smile.
"There is something which might be called a chateau; but the wiser
plan would be to use the building materials in the construction of a
modern residence."
Clotilde's eyes blazed with happiness above her smile of satisfaction.
"You must play a rubber with my father this evening," said she. "In a
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe: slaves by force, by any means; because they had their liberty given
them by capitulation, as it were articles of surrender, which they
ought not to break.
They most willingly embraced the proposal, and came all very
cheerfully along with him: so we allotted them land and
plantations, which three or four accepted of, but all the rest
chose to be employed as servants in the several families we had
settled. Thus my colony was in a manner settled as follows: The
Spaniards possessed my original habitation, which was the capital
city, and extended their plantations all along the side of the
brook, which made the creek that I have so often described, as far
Robinson Crusoe |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift: great destruction of pigs, too frequent at our tables; which are
no way comparable in taste or magnificence to a well grown, fat
yearly child, which roasted whole will make a considerable figure
at a Lord Mayor's feast, or any other publick entertainment. But
this, and many others, I omit, being studious of brevity.
Supposing that one thousand families in this city, would be
constant customers for infants flesh, besides others who might
have it at merry meetings, particularly at weddings and
christenings, I compute that Dublin would take off annually about
twenty thousand carcasses; and the rest of the kingdom (where
probably they will be sold somewhat cheaper) the remaining eighty
A Modest Proposal |
