| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Wife, et al by Anton Chekhov: experience of this subject has its value, says that the students
of today are neither better nor worse than those of the past.
If I were asked what I don't like in my pupils of today, I should
answer the question, not straight off and not at length, but with
sufficient definiteness. I know their failings, and so have no
need to resort to vague generalities. I don't like their smoking,
using spirituous beverages, marrying late, and often being so
irresponsible and careless that they will let one of their number
be starving in their midst while they neglect to pay their
subscriptions to the Students' Aid Society. They don't know
modern languages, and they don't express themselves correctly in
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Contrast by Royall Tyler: and they giggle and we simper, and then the curtain
drops, and then for nuts and oranges, and then we
bow, and it's pray, Ma'am, take it, and pray, Sir, keep
it, and oh! not for the world, Sir; and then the curtain
rises again, and then we blush and giggle and simper
and bow all over again. Oh! the sentimental charms
of a side-box conversation! [All laugh.]
MANLY
Well, sister, I join heartily with you in the laugh;
for, in my opinion, it is as justifiable to laugh at folly
as it is reprehensible to ridicule misfortune.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Altar of the Dead by Henry James: deep into prayer at no great distance from him. He wished he could
sink, like her, to the very bottom, be as motionless, as rapt in
prostration. After a few moments he shifted his seat; it was
almost indelicate to be so aware of her. But Stransom subsequently
quite lost himself, floating away on the sea of light. If
occasions like this had been more frequent in his life he would
have had more present the great original type, set up in a myriad
temples, of the unapproachable shrine he had erected in his mind.
That shrine had begun in vague likeness to church pomps, but the
echo had ended by growing more distinct than the sound. The sound
now rang out, the type blazed at him with all its fires and with a
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