| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Hiero by Xenophon: Now, however, I am no less certain I can prove to you that
government[3] implies no obstacle to being loved, but rather holds the
advantage over private life so far. And whilst investigating if this
be really so, let us not embarass the inquiry by asking whether in
proportion to his greater power the ruler is able to do kindness on a
grander scale. But put it thus: Two human beings, the one in humble
circumstances,[4] the other a despotic ruler, perform a common act;
which of these twain will, under like conditions,[5] win the larger
thanks? I will begin with the most trifling[6] examples; and first a
simple friendly salutation, "Good day," "Good evening," dropped at
sight of some one from the lips of here a ruler, there a private
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from She Stoops to Conquer by Oliver Goldsmith: the most distant hint to suspect me of affection. We had but one
interview, and that was formal, modest, and uninteresting.
HARDCASTLE. (Aside.) This fellow's formal modest impudence is beyond
bearing.
SIR CHARLES. And you never grasped her hand, or made any
protestations?
MARLOW. As Heaven is my witness, I came down in obedience to your
commands. I saw the lady without emotion, and parted without
reluctance. I hope you'll exact no farther proofs of my duty, nor
prevent me from leaving a house in which I suffer so many
mortifications. [Exit.]
She Stoops to Conquer |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Call of the Wild by Jack London: remained mystery, as the man who made it and the reason he made it
remained mystery. Another time they chanced upon the time-graven
wreckage of a hunting lodge, and amid the shreds of rotted
blankets John Thornton found a long-barrelled flint-lock. He knew
it for a Hudson Bay Company gun of the young days in the
Northwest, when such a gun was worth its height in beaver skins
packed flat, And that was all--no hint as to the man who in an
early day had reared the lodge and left the gun among the
blankets.
Spring came on once more, and at the end of all their wandering
they found, not the Lost Cabin, but a shallow placer in a broad
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