| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The American by Henry James: didn't think he was very bad; and she told me to go to bed--
she would sit a while with him. When the marquis saw me going
he gave a sort of groan, and called out to me not to leave him;
but Mr. Urbain opened the door for me and pointed the way out.
The present marquis--perhaps you have noticed, sir--has a very
proud way of giving orders, and I was there to take orders.
I went to my room, but I wasn't easy; I couldn't tell you why.
I didn't undress; I sat there waiting and listening.
For what, would you have said, sir? I couldn't have told you;
for surely a poor gentleman might be comfortable with his wife
and his son. It was as if I expected to hear the marquis
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Phantasmagoria and Other Poems by Lewis Carroll: CANTO IV - Hys Nouryture
"OH, when I was a little Ghost,
A merry time had we!
Each seated on his favourite post,
We chumped and chawed the buttered toast
They gave us for our tea."
"That story is in print!" I cried.
"Don't say it's not, because
It's known as well as Bradshaw's Guide!"
(The Ghost uneasily replied
He hardly thought it was).
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Hiero by Xenophon: then of peace despotic monarchs are scant sharers. Or is war a curse?
If so, of this particular pest your monarch shares the largest moiety.
For, look you, the private citizen, unless his city-state should
chance to be engaged in some common war,[5] is free to travel
wheresoe'er he chooses without fear of being done to death, whereas
the tyrant cannot stir without setting his foot on hostile territory.
At any rate, nothing will persuade him but he must go through life
armed, and on all occasions drag about with him armed satellites. In
the next place, the private citizen, even during an expedition into
hostile territory,[6] can comfort himself in the reflection that as
soon as he gets back home he will be safe from further peril. Whereas
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