| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Call of the Wild by Jack London: them."
Again Hal's whip fell upon the dogs. They threw themselves
against the breast-bands, dug their feet into the packed snow, got
down low to it, and put forth all their strength. The sled held as
though it were an anchor. After two efforts, they stood still,
panting. The whip was whistling savagely, when once more Mercedes
interfered. She dropped on her knees before Buck, with tears in
her eyes, and put her arms around his neck.
"You poor, poor dears," she cried sympathetically, "why don't you
pull hard?--then you wouldn't be whipped." Buck did not like her,
but he was feeling too miserable to resist her, taking it as part
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Alexandria and her Schools by Charles Kingsley: school--a fact which speaks as well for the Mussulmans' good sense, as
it speaks ill for the state of education among the degraded descendants
of the Greek conquerors of the East. Gradually philosophic Schools
arose, first at Bagdad, and then at Cordova; and the Arabs carried on
the task of commenting on Aristotle's Logic, and Ptolemy's Megiste
Syntaxis--which last acquired from them the name of Almagest, by which
it was so long known during the Middle Ages.
But they did little but comment, though there was no Neoplatonic or
mystic element in their commentaries. It seems as if Alexandria was
preordained, by its very central position, to be the city of
commentators, not of originators. It is worthy of remark, that
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia by Samuel Johnson: found that the Arab ranged the country merely to get riches.
Avarice is a uniform and tractable vice: other intellectual
distempers are different in different constitutions of mind; that
which soothes the pride of one will offend the pride of another;
but to the favour of the covetous there is a ready way - bring
money, and nothing is denied.
"At last we came to the dwelling of our chief; a strong and
spacious house, built with stone in an island of the Nile, which
lies, as I was told, under the tropic. 'Lady,' said the Arab, 'you
shall rest after your journey a few weeks in this place, where you
are to consider yourself as Sovereign. My occupation is war: I
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