| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Two Noble Kinsmen by William Shakespeare: The Princes to their proofe! Arcite may win me,
And yet may Palamon wound Arcite to
The spoyling of his figure. O, what pitty
Enough for such a chance; if I were by,
I might doe hurt, for they would glance their eies
Toward my Seat, and in that motion might
Omit a ward, or forfeit an offence
Which crav'd that very time: it is much better
I am not there; oh better never borne
Then minister to such harme. [Cornets. A great cry and noice within,
crying 'a Palamon'.] What is the chance?
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Firm of Nucingen by Honore de Balzac: did not reach the shafts, he looked in fact very much like one of the
cherub heads circling about the Eternal Father in old Italian
pictures. But an English journalist wrote a delicious description of
the little angel, in the course of which he said that Paddy was quite
too pretty for a tiger; in fact, he offered to bet that Paddy was a
tame tigress. The description, on the heads of it, was calculated to
poison minds and end in something 'improper.' And the superlative of
'improper' is the way to the gallows. Milord's circumspection was
highly approved by my lady.
"But poor Toby, now that his precise position in insular zoology had
been called in question, found himself hopelessly out of place. At
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Cavalry General by Xenophon: [2] Lit. "without the rest of the city," i.e. the hoplites, etc.
Now, to deal with this vast hostile array, if only the city will
determine to sally out en masse to protect her rural districts, the
prospect is fair. Under God, our troopers, if properly cared for, are
the finer men; our infantry of the line are no less numerous, and as
regards physique, if it comes to that, not one whit inferior, while in
reference to moral qualities, they are more susceptible to the spur of
a noble ambition, if only under God's will they be correctly trained.
Or again, as touching pride of ancestry, what have Athenians to fear
as against Boeotians on that score?[3]
[3] See "Mem." III. v. 3, where it is contended that in pride of
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