| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Familiar Studies of Men and Books by Robert Louis Stevenson: minister of Christ Jesus his evangel," while Richard Bowes,
besides being own brother to a despiser and taunter of God's
messengers, is shrewdly suspected to have been "a bigoted
adherent of the Roman Catholic faith," or, as Know himself
would have expressed it, "a rotten Papist."
(1) Mr. Laing's preface to the sixth volume of Knox's Works,
p. lxii.
(2) Works. vi. 534.
You would have thought that Know was now pretty well supplied
with female society. But we are not yet at the end of the
roll. The last year of his sojourn in England had been spent
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Memories and Portraits by Robert Louis Stevenson: of the evening shared by ruminating friends. There is something,
aside from personal preference, to be alleged in support of this
omission. Those who are no chimney-cornerers, who rejoice in the
social thunderstorm, have a ground in reason for their choice.
They get little rest indeed; but restfulness is a quality for
cattle; the virtues are all active, life is alert, and it is in
repose that men prepare themselves for evil. On the other hand,
they are bruised into a knowledge of themselves and others; they
have in a high degree the fencer's pleasure in dexterity displayed
and proved; what they get they get upon life's terms, paying for it
as they go; and once the talk is launched, they are assured of
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Confidence by Henry James: he directed his gaze to the star-sprinkled vault of the night.
There were people coming and going whom he knew, but he said
nothing to any one--he preferred to be alone; he found his own
company quite absorbing. He felt very happy, very much amused,
very curiously preoccupied. The feeling was a singular one.
It partook of the nature of intellectual excitement.
He had a sense of having received carte blanche for the expenditure
of his wits. Bernard liked to feel his intelligence at play;
this is, perhaps, the highest luxury of a clever man.
It played at present over the whole field of Angela Vivian's
oddities of conduct--for, since his visit in the afternoon,
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