| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson by Robert Louis Stevenson: [BARBIZON, APRIL 1875.]
MY DEAR FRIEND, - This is just a line to say I am well and happy.
I am here in my dear forest all day in the open air. It is very be
- no, not beautiful exactly, just now, but very bright and living.
There are one or two song birds and a cuckoo; all the fruit-trees
are in flower, and the beeches make sunshine in a shady place, I
begin to go all right; you need not be vexed about my health; I
really was ill at first, as bad as I have been for nearly a year;
but the forest begins to work, and the air, and the sun, and the
smell of the pines. If I could stay a month here, I should be as
right as possible. Thanks for your letter. - Your faithful
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Hiero by Xenophon: private citizen there will come eventually, either through truce or
terms of peace, respite from war; but for the tyrant, the day of peace
will never dawn. What peace can he have with those over whom he
exercises his despotic sway?[8] Nor have the terms of truce been yet
devised, on which the despotic ruler may rely with confidence.[9]
[5] {koinon}, i.e. making demands upon the eneriges of all the
citizens in common, as opposed to the personal character of war as
conducted by a despot = "public," "patriotic," "national" war. Al.
borne by the particular {polis} as member of a league, whether of
states united for the time being in a {summakhia}, or permanently
in a confederacy = a "federal" war.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy: noticed, and repeated in a whisper, the one coarse word she had
used, supposing the whole sting of her remark to lie in that word.
Prince Vasili, who of late very often forgot what he had said and
repeated one and the same thing a hundred times, remarked to his
daughter whenever he chanced to see her:
"Helene, I have a word to say to you," and he would lead her
aside, drawing her hand downward. "I have heard of certain projects
concerning... you know. Well my dear child, you know how your father's
heart rejoices to know that you... You have suffered so much....
But, my dear child, consult only your own heart. That is all I have to
say," and concealing his unvarying emotion he would press his cheek
 War and Peace |