| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson by Robert Louis Stevenson: that's not the word - that jolly, with an Arcadian jollity - thing
of Vogelweide's. Also for your preface. Some day I want to read a
whole book in the same picked dialect as that preface. I think it
must be one E. W. Gosse who must write it. He has got himself into
a fix with me by writing the preface; I look for a great deal, and
will not be easily pleased.
I never thought of it, but my new book, which should soon be out,
contains a visit to a murder scene, but not done as we should like
to see them, for, of course, I was running another hare.
If you do not answer this in four pages, I shall stop the enclosed
fiver at the bank, a step which will lead to your incarceration for
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Hiero by Xenophon: both. Up to this point there is no distinction. The "bitters" are
equal. But when we come to estimate the "sweets" derivable from
warfare between states,[12] the parallel ceases. The tyrant, if he
shared the pains before, no longer shares the pleasures now. What
happens when a state has gained the mastery in battle over her
antagonist? It would be hard (I take it) to describe the joy of that
occurrence: joy in the rout, joy in the pursuit, joy in the slaughter
of their enemies; and in what language shall I describe the exultation
of these warriors at their feats of arms? With what assumption they
bind on their brows the glittering wreath of glory;[13] with what
mirth and jollity congratulate themselves on having raised their city
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from A treatise on Good Works by Dr. Martin Luther: to death, and thereby made atonement before God. Likewise it is
not fitting that the magistrates should be idle and allow sin to
have sway, and that we say nothing. My own possessions, my honor,
my injury, I must not regard, nor grow angry because of them; but
God's honor and Commandment we must protect, and injury or
injustice to our neighbor we must prevent, the magistrates with
the sword, the rest of us with reproof and rebuke, yet always
with pity for those who have merited the punishment.
This high, noble, sweet work can easily be learned, if we perform
it in faith, and as an exercise of faith. For if faith does not
doubt the favor of God nor question that God is gracious, it will
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