| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Three Taverns by Edwin Arlington Robinson: I made them go away. . . . Where is He now? . . .
What do I see down there? Do I see Martha --
Down by the door? . . . I must have time for this."
Lazarus looked about him fearfully,
And then again at Mary, who discovered
Awakening apprehension in his eyes,
And shivered at his feet. All she had feared
Was here; and only in the slow reproach
Of his forgiveness lived his gratitude.
Why had he asked if it was all for her
That he was here? And what had Martha meant?
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from A Journal of the Plague Year by Daniel Defoe: perfectly unprepared for such a dreadful visitation, whether I am to
speak of the civil preparations or religious. They were, indeed, as if
they had had no warning, no expectation, no apprehensions, and
consequently the least provision imaginable was made for it in a
public way. For example, the Lord Mayor and sheriffs had made no
provision as magistrates for the regulations which were to be
observed. They had gone into no measures for relief of the poor. The
citizens had no public magazines or storehouses for corn or meal for
the subsistence of the poor, which if they had provided themselves, as
in such cases is done abroad, many miserable families who were now
reduced to the utmost distress would have been relieved, and that in a
A Journal of the Plague Year |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Caesar's Commentaries in Latin by Julius Caesar: eventum experiri et castra defendere.
Brevi spatio interiecto, vix ut iis rebus quas constituissent
conlocandis atque administrandis tempus daretur, hostes ex omnibus
partibus signo dato decurrere, lapides gaesaque in vallum coicere. Nostri
primo integris viribus fortiter propugnare neque ullum flustra telum ex
loco superiore mittere, et quaecumque pars castrorum nudata defensoribus
premi videbatur, eo occurrere et auxilium ferre, sed hoc superari quod
diuturnitate pugnae hostes defessi proelio excedebant, alii integris
viribus succedebant; quarum rerum a nostris propter paucitatem fieri nihil
poterat, ac non modo defesso ex pugna excedendi, sed ne saucio quidem eius
loci ubi constiterat relinquendi ac sui recipiendi facultas dabatur.
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