| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from A Start in Life by Honore de Balzac: nothing. His sister Mariette, the famous danseuse, is laying up her
money to buy him a practice in ten years. My clerks are young blades
who have nothing but their ten fingers to rely upon. So we all, my
five clerks and I, work as hard as a dozen ordinary fellows. But in
ten years I'll have the finest practice in Paris. In my office,
business and clients are a passion, and that's beginning to make
itself felt. I took Godeschal from Derville, where he was only just
made second clerk. He gets a thousand francs a year from me, and food
and lodging. But he's worth it; he is indefatigable. I love him, that
fellow! He has managed to live, as I did when a clerk, on six hundred
francs a year. What I care for above all is honesty, spotless
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Voice of the City by O. Henry: the cook? I was near turnin' ye down for bein' one
of thim foreign counts!"
FROM EACH ACCORDING TO HIS ABILITY
Vuyning left his club, cursing it softly, without
any particular anger. From ten in the morning un-
til eleven it had bored him immeasurably. Kirk with
his fish story, Brooks with his Porto Rico cigars, old
Morrison with his anecdote about the widow, Hep-
burn with his invariable luck at billiards -- all these
afflictions had been repeated without change of bill or
scenery. Besides these morning evils Miss Allison
The Voice of the City |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Hiero by Xenophon: case it is an honour, but which will be regarded with the greater
gratitude, the monarch's or the lesser man's?
[7] "Come now."
[8] Cf. "Mem." II. iii. 11 as to "sacrifices as a means of social
enjoyment." Dr. Holden cf. Aristot. "Nic. Eth." VIII. ix. 160,
"And hence it is that these clan communites and hundreds solemnise
sacrifices, in connection with which they hold large gatherings,
and thereby not only pay honour to the gods, but also provide for
themselves holiday and amusement" (R. Williams). Thuc. ii. 38,
"And we have not forgotten to provide for our weary spirits many
relaxations from toil; we have regular games and sacrifices
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