| 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: late death of his dear bed-fellow, Marjorie Bowes." (4)
Calvin, condoling with him, speaks of her as "a wife whose
like is not to be found everywhere" (that is very like
Calvin), and again, as "the most delightful of wives." We
know what Calvin thought desirable in a wife, "good humour,
chastity, thrift, patience, and solicitude for her husband's
health," and so we may suppose that the first Mrs. Knox fell
not far short of this ideal.
(1) Works, vi. 104.
(2) IB. v. 5.
(3) IB. vi. 27.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Moral Emblems by Robert Louis Stevenson: Here is the key to right and wrong:
STEAL LITTLE, BUT STEAL ALL DAY LONG;
And this invaluable plan
Marks what is called the Honest Man.
When first I served with Doctor Pill,
My hand was ever in the till.
Now that I am myself a master,
My gains come softer still and faster.
As thus: on Wednesday, a maid
Came to me in the way of trade.
Her mother, an old farmer's wife,
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Misalliance by George Bernard Shaw: nothing about such things, and hadnt we better change the subject.
Then the fat was in the fire, I can tell you. There was a regular
terror of a countess with an anaerobic system; and she told me,
downright brutally, that I'd better learn something about them before
my children died of diphtheria. That was just two months after I'd
buried poor little Bobby; and that was the very thing he died of, poor
little lamb! I burst out crying: I couldnt help it. It was as good
as telling me I'd killed my own child. I had to go away; but before I
was out of the door one of the duchesses--quite a young woman--began
talking about what sour milk did in her inside and how she expected to
live to be over a hundred if she took it regularly. And me listening
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