| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Black Dwarf by Walter Scott: to address from my house of Ellieslaw to young Mr. Earnscliff;
whom, of all men, I have a hereditary right to call my enemy.
You see she writes to him as the confidant of a passion which he
has the assurance to entertain for my daughter; tells him she
serves his cause with her friend very ardently, but that he has a
friend in the garrison who serves him yet more effectually. Look
particularly at the pencilled passages, Mr. Ratcliffe, where this
meddling girl recommends bold measures, with an assurance that
his suit would be successful anywhere beyond the bounds of the
barony of Ellieslaw."
"And you argue, from this romantic letter of a very romantic
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Ion by Plato: good poets and of Homer, who is the prince of them. In the course of
conversation the admission is elicited from Ion that his skill is
restricted to Homer, and that he knows nothing of inferior poets, such as
Hesiod and Archilochus;--he brightens up and is wide awake when Homer is
being recited, but is apt to go to sleep at the recitations of any other
poet. 'And yet, surely, he who knows the superior ought to know the
inferior also;--he who can judge of the good speaker is able to judge of
the bad. And poetry is a whole; and he who judges of poetry by rules of
art ought to be able to judge of all poetry.' This is confirmed by the
analogy of sculpture, painting, flute-playing, and the other arts. The
argument is at last brought home to the mind of Ion, who asks how this
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Black Arrow by Robert Louis Stevenson: faces. But mark it well, Throgmorton: the matter is not easy. Ye
must steal forth under night, and go like a fox; and how ye are to
cross Till I know not, neither by the bridge nor ferry."
"I can swim," returned Throgmorton. "I will come soundly, fear
not."
"Well, friend, get ye to the buttery," replied Sir Daniel. "Ye
shall swim first of all in nut-brown ale." And with that he turned
back into the hall.
"Sir Daniel hath a wise tongue," said Hatch, aside, to Dick. "See,
now, where many a lesser man had glossed the matter over, he
speaketh it out plainly to his company. Here is a danger, 'a
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