| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Malbone: An Oldport Romance by Thomas Wentworth Higginson: about the house. Somebody comes in late at night. Perhaps it
is Philip; but he comes very softly in, wipes his feet very
gently, like a clean thief, and goes up stairs."
"O auntie!" said Kate, "you know you have got over all such
fancies."
"They are not fancies," said Aunt Jane. "Things do happen in
houses! Did I not look under the bed for a thief during fifteen
years, and find one at last? Why should I not be allowed to
hear something now?"
"But, dear Aunt Jane," said Kate, "you never told me this
before."
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Hiero by Xenophon: the champion presidents of rival states, above whose lesser heads be
it your destiny to raise this state, of which you are the patron and
supreme head, to some unprecedented height of fortune, which if you
shall achieve, be certain you will be approved victorious in a contest
the noblest and the most stupendous in the world.
Since what follows? In the first place, you will by one swift stroke
have brought about the very thing you have set your heart on, you will
have won the affection of your subjects. Secondly, you will need no
herald to proclaim your victory; not one man only, but all mankind,
shall hymn your virtue.
Wherever you set foot you shall be gazed upon, and not by individual
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from An International Episode by Henry James: declared that it was a jolly old place. Bessie Alden was in ecstasies;
she went about murmuring and exclaiming.
"It's too lovely," said the young girl; "it's too enchanting;
it's too exactly what it ought to be!"
At Hampton Court the little flocks of visitors are not provided
with an official bellwether, but are left to browse at discretion
upon the local antiquities. It happened in this manner that,
in default of another informant, Bessie Alden, who on doubtful
questions was able to suggest a great many alternatives, found herself
again applying for intellectual assistance to Lord Lambeth.
But he again assured her that he was utterly helpless in such matters--
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