| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from A Distinguished Provincial at Paris by Honore de Balzac: "Not by that time," said Fulgence. "If you were a journalist, you
would no more think of us than the Opera girl in all her glory, with
her adorers and her silk-lined carriage, thinks of the village at home
and her cows and her sabots. You could never resist the temptation to
pen a witticism, though it should bring tears to a friend's eyes. I
come across journalists in theatre lobbies; it makes me shudder to see
them. Journalism is an inferno, a bottomless pit of iniquity and
treachery and lies; no one can traverse it undefiled, unless, like
Dante, he is protected by Virgil's sacred laurel."
But the more the set of friends opposed the idea of journalism, the
more Lucien's desire to know its perils grew and tempted him. He began
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Democracy In America, Volume 1 by Alexis de Toqueville: possession of a vast deal of arbitrary power. This state of
things has engendered habits which would outlive itself; the
American magistrate would retain his power, but he would cease to
be responsible for the exercise of it; and it is impossible to
say what bounds could then be set to tyranny.
Some of our European politicians expect to see an
aristocracy arise in America, and they already predict the exact
period at which it will be able to assume the reins of
government. I have previously observed, and I repeat my
assertion, that the present tendency of American society appears
to me to become more and more democratic. Nevertheless, I do not
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from A Distinguished Provincial at Paris by Honore de Balzac: streets of Paris? Ah! God A'mighty! 'twas a shabby trick to desert the
Emperor.--Well, my boy, the individual you saw this morning has made
his forty francs a month. Are you going to do better? And, according
to Finot, he is the cleverest man on the staff."
"When you enlisted in the Sambre-et-Meuse, did they talk about
danger?"
"Rather."
"Very well?"
"Very well. Go and see my nephew Finot, a good fellow, as good a
fellow as you will find, if you can find him, that is, for he is like
a fish, always on the move. In his way of business, there is no
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