| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Barnaby Rudge by Charles Dickens: from here. We will take the rest for granted.'
'Pray, Mr Tappertit,' said Mr Chester, 'has that complicated piece
of ironmongery which you have done me the favour to bring with you,
any immediate connection with the business we are to discuss?'
'It has not, sir,' rejoined the 'prentice. 'It's going to be
fitted on a ware'us-door in Thames Street.'
'Perhaps, as that is the case,' said Mr Chester, 'and as it has a
stronger flavour of oil than I usually refresh my bedroom with, you
will oblige me so far as to put it outside the door?'
'By all means, sir,' said Mr Tappertit, suiting the action to the
word.
Barnaby Rudge |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Sportsman by Xenophon: The boar-spears should in the first place have blades fifteen inches
long, and in the middle of the socket two solid projecting teeth of
wrought metal,[9] and shafts of cornel-wood a spear-shaft's thickness.
[9] Wrought of copper (or bronze).
The foot-traps should resemble those used for deer.
These hunts should be conducted not singly,[10] but in parties, since
the wild boar can be captured only by the collective energy of several
men, and that not easily.
[10] Lit. "There should be a band of huntsmen"; or, "It will take the
united energies of several to capture this game." See Hom. "Il."
ix. 543, of the Calydonian boar:
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Records of a Family of Engineers by Robert Louis Stevenson: favourable state of the weather, and the regular manner in
which the work now proceeded, the artificers had generally
from four to seven extra hours' work, which, including their
stated wages of 3s. 4d., yielded them from 5s. 4d. to about
6s. 10d. per day besides their board; even the postage of
their letters was paid while they were at the Bell Rock. In
these advantages the foremen also shared, having about double
the pay and amount of premiums of the artificers. The seamen
being less out of their element in the Bell Rock operations
than the landsmen, their premiums consisted in a slump sum
payable at the end of the season, which extended from three to
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