| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Lay Morals by Robert Louis Stevenson: One example in particular we may cite:
John Neilson, the Laird of Corsack, a worthy man, was,
unfortunately for himself, a Nonconformist. First he was
fined in four hundred pounds Scots, and then through cessing
he lost nineteen hundred and ninety-three pounds Scots. He
was next obliged to leave his house and flee from place to
place, during which wanderings he lost his horse. His wife
and children were turned out of doors, and then his tenants
were fined till they too were almost ruined. As a final
stroke, they drove away all his cattle to Glasgow and sold
them. (4) Surely it was time that something were done to
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Tour Through Eastern Counties of England by Daniel Defoe: carry them up to Wyvenhoe, where they are laid in beds or pits on
the shore to feed, as they call it; and then being barrelled up and
carried to Colchester, which is but three miles off, they are sent
to London by land, and are from thence called Colchester oysters.
The chief sort of other fish which they carry from this part of the
shore to London are soles, which they take sometimes exceeding
large, and yield a very good price at London market. Also
sometimes middling turbot, with whiting, codling and large
flounders; the small fish, as above, they sell in the country.
In the several creeks and openings, as above, on this shore there
are also other islands, but of no particular note, except Mersey,
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Phaedrus by Plato: always ground down by bodily toil, but may have greater leisure for the
improvement of the mind. The increasing sense of the greatness and
infinity of nature will tend to awaken in men larger and more liberal
thoughts. The love of mankind may be the source of a greater development
of literature than nationality has ever been. There may be a greater
freedom from prejudice and party; we may better understand the whereabouts
of truth, and therefore there may be more success and fewer failures in the
search for it. Lastly, in the coming ages we shall carry with us the
recollection of the past, in which are necessarily contained many seeds of
revival and renaissance in the future. So far is the world from becoming
exhausted, so groundless is the fear that literature will ever die out.
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