| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane: 'im what--"
He ceased because several men had come
hurrying up. Their faces expressed a bringing
of great news.
"O Flem, yeh jest oughta heard!" cried one,
eagerly.
"Heard what?" said the youth.
"Yeh jest oughta heard!" repeated the other,
and he arranged himself to tell his tidings. The
others made an excited circle. "Well, sir, th'
colonel met your lieutenant right by us--it was
The Red Badge of Courage |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Give Me Liberty Or Give Me Death by Patrick Henry: The millions of people, armed in the holy cause of liberty, and in such a
country as that which we possess, are invincible by any force which our enemy
can send against us. Besides, sir, we shall not fight our battles alone.
There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations, and who will
raise up friends to fight our battles for us. The battle, sir, is not to the
strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave. Besides, sir,
we have no election. If we were base enough to desire it, it is now too late
to retire from the contest. There is no retreat but in submission and slavery!
Our chains are forged! Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston!
The war is inevitable--and let it come! I repeat it, sir, let it come.
It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace--
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Cavalry General by Xenophon: But to avoid suspicion of seeming to prescribe impossible feats, I
will set down, in so many words, the procedure in certain crucial
instances.
The best safeguard against failure in any attempt to enforce pursuit
or conduct a retreat lies in a thorough knowledge of your horse's
powers.[2] But how is this experience to be got? Simply by paying
attention to their behaviour in the peaceable manouvres of the sham
fight, when there is no real enemy to intervene--how the animals come
off, in fact, and what stamina they show in the various charges and
retreats.
[2] {empeiria}, "empirical knowledge."
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