| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Mother by Owen Wister: with the arrangement of the coupons. 'Thirty dollars on January first,
and thirty on July first,' she said. That seems a long while to wait for
those payments, Richard. And there are only two in every year, though you
pay them a thousand dollars all at once. It does not seem very prompt on
their part.' I told her that this was the rule. 'But,' she urged, 'don't
you think that a man like Mr. Beverly might be able to get them to make
an exception if he explained the circumstances? Other people may be
satisfied with waiting for little crumbs in this way, but why should we?'
I soon made her understand how it was, however, and I explained many
other facts about investments and the stock market to her, as I learned
them. It was a great pleasure to do this. We came to talk about finance
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Mansion by Henry van Dyke: picture,
a breath of spring-time in the misty trees, a harmony of joy in
the dancing figures, that wakened in him a feeling of
half-pleasure
and half-envy. It represented something that he had never known
in his
calculated, orderly life. He was dimly mistrustful of it.
"It is certainly very beautiful," he thought, "but it is
distinctly pagan;
that altar is built to some heathen god. It does not fit into
the scheme of a Christian life. I doubt whether it is consistent
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift: constant customers for infants flesh, besides others who might
have it at merry meetings, particularly at weddings and
christenings, I compute that Dublin would take off annually about
twenty thousand carcasses; and the rest of the kingdom (where
probably they will be sold somewhat cheaper) the remaining eighty
thousand.
I can think of no one objection, that will possibly be raised
against this proposal, unless it should be urged, that the number
of people will be thereby much lessened in the kingdom. This I
freely own, and 'twas indeed one principal design in offering it
to the world. I desire the reader will observe, that I calculate
A Modest Proposal |
