| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Letters from England by Elizabeth Davis Bancroft: party, and I passed it most pleasantly. . . . Your father writes
that on Friday he dined at Thiers' with Mignet, Cousin, Pontois, and
Lord Normanby. He says such a dinner is "unique in a man's life."
"Mignet is delightful, frank, open, gay, full of intelligence, and
of that grace which makes society charming." . . . Your father to-
day gives me some account of Thiers. He is now fifty: he rises at
five o'clock every morning, toils till twelve, breakfasts, makes
researches, and then goes to the Chambers. In the evening he always
receives his friends except Wednesdays and Thursdays, when he
attends his wife to the opera and to the Academie.
LETTER: To Mr. and Mrs. I.P.D.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Prince Otto by Robert Louis Stevenson: pardon. You can scarce refuse it, for your own dignity, to one who
is a plexus of weaknesses. Nor was the fault entirely mine. Had
the papers been innocent, it would have been at most an
indiscretion. Your own guilt is the sting of my offence.'
Sir John regarded Otto with an approving twinkle; then he bowed, but
still in silence.
'Well, sir, as you are now at your entire disposal, I have a favour
to beg of your indulgence,' continued the Prince. 'I have to
request that you will walk with me alone into the garden so soon as
your convenience permits.'
'From the moment that I am a free man,' Sir John replied, this time
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Democracy In America, Volume 1 by Alexis de Toqueville: The States which gave their assent to the federal contract
in 1790 were thirteen in number; the Union now consists of
thirty-four members. The population, which amounted to nearly
4,000,000 in 1790, had more than tripled in the space of forty
years; and in 1830 it amounted to nearly 13,000,000. *e Changes
of such magnitude cannot take place without some danger.
A society of nations, as well as a society of individuals,
derives its principal chances of duration from the wisdom of its
members, their individual weakness, and their limited number.
The Americans who quit the coasts of the Atlantic Ocean to plunge
into the western wilderness, are adventurers impatient of
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