| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Profits of Religion by Upton Sinclair: and city lots from which it derives income. Each cathedral owns
large tracts; so do the schools and universities in which the
clergy are educated. The income from the holdings of a church
constitutes what is called a "living"; these livings, which vary
in size, are the prerogatives of the younger sons of the ruling
families, and are intrigued and scrambled for in exactly the
fashion which Thackeray describes in the eighteenth century.
About six thousand of these "livings" are in the gift of great
land owners.; one noble lord alone disposes of fifty-six such
plums; and needless to say, he does not present them to clergymen
who favor radical land-taxes. He gives them to men like
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from New Arabian Nights by Robert Louis Stevenson: quarter, but there was something business-like in the speed which
convinced him of the contrary. The man had an object in view, he
was hastening towards a definite end; and Brackenbury was at once
astonished at the fellow's skill in picking a way through such a
labyrinth, and a little concerned to imagine what was the occasion
of his hurry. He had heard tales of strangers falling ill in
London. Did the driver belong to some bloody and treacherous
association? and was he himself being whirled to a murderous death?
The thought had scarcely presented itself, when the cab swung
sharply round a corner and pulled up before the garden gate of a
villa in a long and wide road. The house was brilliantly lighted
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Padre Ignacio by Owen Wister: souls are as sacred and immortal as mine, and God helps me to help them.
But in this world it is not immortal souls that we choose for companions;
it is kindred tastes, intelligences, and--and so I and my books are
growing old together, you see," he added, more lightly. "You will find my
volumes as behind the times as myself."
He had fallen into talk more intimate than he wished; and while the guest
was uttering something polite about the nobility of missionary work, he
placed him in an easy-chair and sought aguardiente for his immediate
refreshment. Since the year's beginning there had been no guest for him
to bring into his rooms, or to sit beside him in the high seats at table,
set apart for the gente fina.
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