| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from A Princess of Parms by Edgar Rice Burroughs: time, square at the back and banged in front, so that I could
have passed anywhere upon Barsoom as a full-fledged red
Martian. My metal and ornaments were also renewed in the
style of a Zodangan gentleman, attached to the house of
Ptor, which was the family name of my benefactors.
They filled a little sack at my side with Zodangan money.
The medium of exchange upon Mars is not dissimilar from
our own except that the coins are oval. Paper money is
issued by individuals as they require it and redeemed twice
yearly. If a man issues more than he can redeem, the
government pays his creditors in full and the debtor works out
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Charmides by Plato: of the so-called English Dialogues are but poor imitations of Plato, which
fall very far short of the original. The breath of conversation, the
subtle adjustment of question and answer, the lively play of fancy, the
power of drawing characters, are wanting in them. But the Platonic
dialogue is a drama as well as a dialogue, of which Socrates is the central
figure, and there are lesser performers as well:--the insolence of
Thrasymachus, the anger of Callicles and Anytus, the patronizing style of
Protagoras, the self-consciousness of Prodicus and Hippias, are all part of
the entertainment. To reproduce this living image the same sort of effort
is required as in translating poetry. The language, too, is of a finer
quality; the mere prose English is slow in lending itself to the form of
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Weir of Hermiston by Robert Louis Stevenson: GLOSSARY
Ae, one.
Antinomian, one of a sect which holds that under the gospel dispensation
the moral law is not obligatory.
Auld Hornie, the Devil.
Ballant, ballad.
Bauchles, brogues, old shoes.
Bauld, bold.
Bees in their bonnet, eccentricities.
Birling, whirling.
Black-a-vised, dark-complexioned.
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