| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Bureaucracy by Honore de Balzac: francs a year and demand his whole time was surely to organize theft
and poverty. A galley-slave costs nearly as much, and does less. But
to expect a man whom the State remunerated with twelve thousand francs
a year to devote himself to his country was a profitable contract for
both sides, fit to allure all capacities.
These reflections had led Rabourdin to desire the recasting of the
clerical official staff. To employ fewer man, to double or treble
salaries, and do away with pensions, to choose only young clerks (as
did Napoleon, Louis XIV., Richelieu, and Ximenes), but to keep them
long and train them for the higher offices and greatest honors, these
were the chief features of a reform which if carried out would be as
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin: Hutchinson and Oliver. On his arrival in Philadelphia he was chosen
a member of the Continental Congress and in 1777 he was despatched
to France as commissioner for the United States. Here he remained
till 1785, the favorite of French society; and with such success did
he conduct the affairs of his country that when he finally returned
he received a place only second to that of Washington as the champion
of American independence. He died on April 17, 1790.
The first five chapters of the Autobiography were composed in
England in 1771, continued in 1784-5, and again in 1788, at which
date he brought it down to 1757. After a most extraordinary series
of adventures, the original form of the manuscript was finally printed
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from King Lear by William Shakespeare: this
of Kent's banishment.
Gon. There is further compliment of leave-taking between France
and
him. Pray you let's hit together. If our father carry
authority
with such dispositions as he bears, this last surrender of
his
will but offend us.
Reg. We shall further think on't.
Gon. We must do something, and i' th' heat.
King Lear |
