| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Cousin Pons by Honore de Balzac: "Let me have it in writing, and sign it, both of you. Undertake to pay
nine hundred thousand francs in cash for M. Pons' collection, and we
will see about putting you in the way of making a handsome profit."
With that he said something to La Cibot in a voice so low that the
others could not catch it, and went down after the two dealers to the
porter's room.
"Have they gone, Mme. Cibot?" asked the unhappy Pons, when she came
back again.
"Gone? . . . who?" asked she.
"Those men."
"What men? There, now, you have seen men," said she. "You have just
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Apology by Xenophon: life in meditating my defence?" And when Hermogenes asked him, "How?"
he added: "By a lifelong persistence in doing nothing wrong, and that
I take to be the finest practice for his defence which a man could
devise." Presently reverting to the topic, Hermogenes demanded: "Do
you not see, SOcrates, how often Athenian juries[8] are constrained by
arguments to put quite innocent people to death, and not less often to
acquit the guilty, either through some touch of pity excited by the
pleadings, or that the defendant had skill to turn some charming
phrase?" Thus appealed to, Socrates replied: "Nay, solemnly I tell
you, twice already I have essayed to consider my defence, and twice
the divinity[9] hinders me"; and to the remark of Hermogenes, "That is
The Apology |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from King Henry VI by William Shakespeare: [To Suffolk] And therefore, to revenge it, shalt thou die;--
And so should these, if I might have my will.
CAPTAIN.
Be not so rash; take ransom, let him live.
SUFFOLK.
Look on my George; I am a gentleman.
Rate me at what thou wilt, thou shalt be paid.
WHITMORE.
And so am I; my name is Walter Whitmore.
How now! why start'st thou? What, doth death affright?
SUFFOLK.
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