| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Marie by H. Rider Haggard: pounds which my old aunt in England left me last year. Thank Heaven!
owing to my absence on commando, it still lies untouched in the bank at
Port Elizabeth. That is about eight hundred pounds in all, which would
buy a great many cattle and other things. As for the third, it is not
in our hands, is it? It may be that they cannot be rescued, it may be
that they are dead. I can only go to see."
"But, Allan, Allan, you are my only son, and if you go it is probable
that I shall never see you more."
"I have been through more dangers lately, father, and am still alive and
well. Moreover, if Marie is dead"--I paused, then went on
passionately--"Do not try to stop me, for I tell you, father, I will not
 Marie |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Unseen World and Other Essays by John Fiske: despotic of governments.
Here was the first great triumph of republicanism over monarchy;
and it was not long in bearing fruits. For the Dutch revolution,
the settlement of America by English Puritans, the great
rebellion of the Commons, the Revolution of 1688, the revolt of
the American Colonies, and the general overthrow of feudalism in
1789, are but successive acts in the same drama William the
Silent was the worthy forerunner of Cromwell and Washington; and
but for the victory which he won, during his life and after his
untimely death, the subsequent triumphs of civil liberty might
have been long, postponed.
 The Unseen World and Other Essays |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne: eighteen.--Nor is there any thing unnatural or extravagant in the
supposition, that my dear Jenny may be my friend.--Friend!--My friend.--
Surely, Madam, a friendship between the two sexes may subsist, and be
supported without--Fy! Mr Shandy:--Without any thing, Madam, but that
tender and delicious sentiment which ever mixes in friendship, where there
is a difference of sex. Let me intreat you to study the pure and
sentimental parts of the best French Romances;--it will really, Madam,
astonish you to see with what a variety of chaste expressions this
delicious sentiment, which I have the honour to speak of, is dress'd out.
Chapter 1.XIX.
I would sooner undertake to explain the hardest problem in geometry, than
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