| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Two Brothers by Honore de Balzac: saw the hole, and let fall the mattress. Hearing a sigh from the
depths of the old woman's breast, as though she were strangled by a
rush of blood to the heart, Joseph instinctively held out his arms to
catch the poor creature, and placed her fainting in a chair, calling
to his mother to come to them. Agathe rose, slipped on her dressing-
gown, and ran in. By the light of a candle, she applied the ordinary
remedies,--eau-de-cologne to the temples, cold water to the forehead,
a burnt feather under the nose,--and presently her aunt revived.
"They were there is morning; HE has taken them, the monster!" she
said.
"Taken what?" asked Joseph.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Agesilaus by Xenophon: for the sake of his former friendship with Agesilaus, the latter
contributed also money for the state of Lacedaemon; and so they sped
him home.
[34] King of Egypt.
And now the weight of, may be, fourscore years was laid upon him,[35]
when it came under his observation that the king of Egypt,[36] with
his hosts of foot and horse and stores of wealth, had set his heart on
a war with Persia. Joyfully he learned that he himself was summoned by
King Tachos, and that the command-in-chief of all the forces was
promised to him. By this one venture he would achieve three objects,
which were to requite the Egyptian for the benefits conferred on
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift: other that ever was, is, or, I think, ever can be upon Earth.
Therefore let no man talk to me of other expedients: Of taxing
our absentees at five shillings a pound: Of using neither
cloaths, nor houshold furniture, except what is of our own growth
and manufacture: Of utterly rejecting the materials and
instruments that promote foreign luxury: Of curing the
expensiveness of pride, vanity, idleness, and gaming in our
women: Of introducing a vein of parsimony, prudence and
temperance: Of learning to love our country, wherein we differ
even from Laplanders, and the inhabitants of Topinamboo: Of
quitting our animosities and factions, nor acting any longer like
A Modest Proposal |
