| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Letters of Two Brides by Honore de Balzac: taxes to the State, I receive from it, every half-year, in my own
person, and free from cost, thirty thousand francs in thirty notes,
handed over the counter to me by a dapper little clerk at the
Treasury, who smiles when he sees me coming!
Supposing the nation went bankrupt? Well, to begin with:
'Tis not mine to see trouble so far from my door.
At the worst, too, the nation would not dock me of more than half my
income, so I should still be as well off as before my investment, and
in the meantime I shall be drawing a double income until the
catastrophe arrives. A nation doesn't become bankrupt more than once
in a century, so I shall have plenty of time to amass a little capital
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The United States Bill of Rights: or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble,
and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
II
A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free State,
the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.
III
No soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house,
without the consent of the owner, nor in time of war,
but in a manner to be prescribed by law.
IV
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers,
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Letters from England by Elizabeth Davis Bancroft: Monday I dined at Sir Edward Codrington's, the hero of Navarino,
with the Marquis and Marchioness of Queensberry, and a party of
admirals and navy officers. On Tuesday I dined at Lady Braye's,
where were Mr. Rogers, Dr. Holland, Sir Augustus and Lady Albinia
Foster, formerly British Minister to the United States. He could
describe OUR COURT, as he called it, in the time of Madison and
Monroe.
January 1, 1848
This evening, in addition to my usual morning letter from your
father, I have another; a new postal arrangement beginning to-day
with the New Year. He gives me a most interesting conversation he
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