| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Bickerstaff-Partridge Papers by Jonathan Swift: I and my fellows, who can hardly write or read. I then asked him
why he had not calculated his own nativity, to see whether it
agreed with Bickerstaff's prediction? at which he shook his head,
and said, Oh! sir, this is no time for jesting, but for repenting
those fooleries, as I do now from the very bottom of my heart. By
what I can gather from you, said I, the observations and
predictions you printed, with your almanacks, were mere
impositions on the people. He reply'd, if it were otherwise I
should have the less to answer for. We have a common form for all
those things, as to foretelling the weather, we never meddle with
that, but leave it to the printer, who takes it out of any old
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Damaged Goods by Upton Sinclair: clergymen now insist upon and which doubtless will be made
compulsory before long in many of our States.
Brieux paints in black colors yet is no fanatic; in fact, he will
be criticised by many as being too tolerant of human weakness.
The conditions of society and the moral standards of France are
so different from those of America that his point of view and his
proposals for reform will not meet with general acceptance, but
it is encouraging to find a dramatist who realizes the importance
of being earnest and who uses his art in defense of virtue
instead of its destruction.
Other comments follow, showing the great interest manifested in
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Reign of King Edward the Third by William Shakespeare: Having so rich and fair a cause to stay.--
Art thou there, Lodowick? Give me ink and paper.
LODOWICK.
I will, my liege.
KING EDWARD.
And bid the Lords hold on their play at Chess,
For we will walk and meditate alone.
LODOWICK.
I will, my sovereign.
[Exit Lodowick.]
KING EDWARD.
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