| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from On Revenues by Xenophon: hitting upon a productive lode will be the means of discovering what
is advantageous to all. Or, supposing two or three, or possibly the
half of them, hit upon a lode, clearly these several operations will
proportionally be more remunerative still. That the whole ten will
fail is not at all in accordance with what we should expect from the
history of the past. It is possible, of course, for private persons to
combine in the same way,[35] and share their fortunes and minimise
their risks. Nor need you apprehend, sirs, that a state mining
company, established on this principle, will prove a thorn in the
side[36] of the private owner, or the private owner prove injurious to
the state. But rather like allies who render each other stronger the
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Barlaam and Ioasaph by St. John of Damascus: of light. After the fulfilment of the twelve years, the king
brought forth from his little house his son that had never seen
a single object, and ordered his waiting men to show the boy
everything after his kind; men in one place, women in another;
elsewhere gold and silver; in another place, pearls and precious
stones, fine and ornamental vestments, splendid chariots with
horses from the royal stables, with golden bridles and purple
caparisons, mounted by armed soldiers; also droves of oxen and
flocks of sheep. In brief, row after row, they showed the boy
everything. Now, as he asked what each ox these was called, the
king's esquires and guards made known unto him each by name: but,
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Happy Prince and Other Tales by Oscar Wilde: empty. Why, perhaps the Prince and Princess may go to live in a
country where there is a deep river, and perhaps they may have one
only son, a little fair-haired boy with violet eyes like the Prince
himself; and perhaps some day he may go out to walk with his nurse;
and perhaps the nurse may go to sleep under a great elder-tree; and
perhaps the little boy may fall into the deep river and be drowned.
What a terrible misfortune! Poor people, to lose their only son!
It is really too dreadful! I shall never get over it."
"But they have not lost their only son," said the Roman Candle; "no
misfortune has happened to them at all."
"I never said that they had," replied the Rocket; "I said that they
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