| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Democracy In America, Volume 2 by Alexis de Toqueville: frequently occur amongst us, he takes care to bespeak the
compassion of the reader by bringing before him ill-assorted or
compulsory marriages. Although habitual tolerance has long since
relaxed our morals, an author could hardly succeed in interesting
us in the misfortunes of his characters, if he did not first
palliate their faults. This artifice seldom fails: the daily
scenes we witness prepare us long beforehand to be indulgent.
But American writers could never render these palliations
probable to their readers; their customs and laws are opposed to
it; and as they despair of rendering levity of conduct pleasing,
they cease to depict it. This is one of the causes to which must
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Off on a Comet by Jules Verne: even Ben Zoof he hurried to the assistance of his little playmate,
and discovered that she was being attacked by half a dozen
great sea-gulls, and only after receiving some severe blows
from their beaks could he succeed by means of a stout cudgel
in driving them away.
"Tell me, Nina, what is this?" he asked as soon as the tumult had subsided.
The child pointed to a bird which she was caressing tenderly in her bosom.
"A pigeon!" exclaimed Ben Zoof, who had reached the scene
of commotion, adding:
"A carrier-pigeon! And by all the saints of Montmartre,
there is a little bag attached to its neck!"
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Lesser Hippias by Plato: they not?
HIPPIAS: Yes.
SOCRATES: And are they wily, and do they deceive by reason of their
simplicity and folly, or by reason of their cunning and a certain sort of
prudence?
HIPPIAS: By reason of their cunning and prudence, most certainly.
SOCRATES: Then they are prudent, I suppose?
HIPPIAS: So they are--very.
SOCRATES: And if they are prudent, do they know or do they not know what
they do?
HIPPIAS: Of course, they know very well; and that is why they do mischief
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