| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Battle of the Books by Jonathan Swift: of quality showed me, written in his album, that the most learned
astronomer, Captain H-, assured him, he would never believe
anything of the stars' influence if there were not a great
revolution in England in the year 1688. Since that time I began to
have other thoughts, and after eighteen years' diligent study and
application, I think I have no reason to repent of my pains. I
shall detain the reader no longer than to let him know that the
account I design to give of next year's events shall take in the
principal affairs that happen in Europe; and if I be denied the
liberty of offering it to my own country, I shall appeal to the
learned world, by publishing it in Latin, and giving order to have
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Travels of Sir John Mandeville by Sir John Mandeville: and that they believe in God, that formed all things and made the
world, and clepe him God of Nature; after that the prophet saith,
ET METUENT EUM OMNES FINES TERRAE, and also in another place, OMNES
GENTES SERVIENT EI, that is to say, 'All folk shall serve him.'
But yet they cannot speak perfectly (for there is no man to teach
them), but only that they can devise by their natural wit. For
they have no knowledge of the Son, ne of the Holy Ghost. But they
can all speak of the Bible, and namely of Genesis, of the prophet's
saws and of the books of Moses. And they say well, that the
creatures that they worship ne be no gods; but they worship them
for the virtue that is in them, that may not be but only by the
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Paz by Honore de Balzac: the Polish exiles of distinction lived in Paris in the Biblical
solitude of "super flumina Babylonis," or else they haunted a few
salons which were the neutral ground of all opinions. In a city of
pleasure, like Paris, where amusements abound on all sides, the
heedless gayety of a Pole finds twice as many encouragements as it
needs to a life of dissipation.
It must be said, however, that Adam had two points against him,--his
appearance, and his mental equipment. There are two species of Pole,
as there are two species of Englishwoman. When an Englishwoman is not
very handsome she is horribly ugly. Comte Adam belonged in the second
category of human beings. His small face, rather sharp in expression,
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