| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Paz by Honore de Balzac: would infallibly have gone to ruin. What fortune can bear the strain
of reckless prodigality? Clementine, brought up by a spendthrift
father, knew nothing of the management of a household which the women
of the present day, however rich or noble they are, are often
compelled to undertake themselves. How few, in these days, keep a
steward. Adam, on the other hand, son of one of the great Polish lords
who let themselves be preyed on by the Jews, and are wholly incapable
of managing even the wreck of their vast fortunes (for fortunes are
vast in Poland), was not of a nature to check his own fancies or those
of his wife. Left to himself he would probably have been ruined before
his marriage. Paz had prevented him from gambling at the Bourse, and
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Second Inaugural Address by Abraham Lincoln: address than there was at the first. Then a statement, somewhat
in detail, of a course to be pursued, seemed fitting and proper.
Now, at the expiration of four years, during which public declarations
have been constantly called forth on every point and phase of the great
contest which still absorbs the attention and engrosses the energies
of the nation, little that is new could be presented. The progress
of our arms, upon which all else chiefly depends, is as well known
to the public as to myself; and it is, I trust, reasonably satisfactory
and encouraging to all. With high hope for the future, no prediction
in regard to it is ventured.
On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago, all thoughts
Second Inaugural Address |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Heroes by Charles Kingsley: to Zeus; and they took the bough and came to Iolcos, and
nailed it to the beak-head of the ship.
And at last the ship was finished, and they tried to launch
her down the beach; but she was too heavy for them to move
her, and her keel sank deep into the sand. Then all the
heroes looked at each other blushing; but Jason spoke, and
said, 'Let us ask the magic bough; perhaps it can help us in
our need.'
Then a voice came from the bough, and Jason heard the words
it said, and bade Orpheus play upon the harp, while the
heroes waited round, holding the pine-trunk rollers, to help
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