| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Glimpses of the Moon by Edith Wharton: rising even to this height, while Susy stood before her with a
hesitating smile.
Take care of five Fulmers for three months! The prospect cowed
her. If there had been only Junie and Geordie, the oldest and
youngest of the band, she might have felt less hesitation. But
there was Nat, the second in age, whose motor-horn had driven
her and Nick out to the hill-side on their fatal day at the
Fulmers' and there were the twins, Jack and Peggy, of whom she
had kept memories almost equally disquieting. To rule this
uproarious tribe would be a sterner business than trying to
beguile Clarissa Vanderlyn's ladylike leisure; and she would
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Cratylus by Plato: preserved. Yet the materials at our disposal are far greater than any
individual can use. Such are a few of the general reflections which the
present state of philology calls up.
(1) Language seems to be composite, but into its first elements the
philologer has never been able to penetrate. However far he goes back, he
never arrives at the beginning; or rather, as in Geology or in Astronomy,
there is no beginning. He is too apt to suppose that by breaking up the
existing forms of language into their parts he will arrive at a previous
stage of it, but he is merely analyzing what never existed, or is never
known to have existed, except in a composite form. He may divide nouns and
verbs into roots and inflexions, but he has no evidence which will show
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Black Arrow by Robert Louis Stevenson: Meanwhile, Sir Daniel had come to a full halt. The torches were
stuck into the sand, and the men lay down, as if to await the
arrival of the other party.
This drew near at a good rate. It consisted of four men only - a
pair of archers, a varlet with a link, and a cloaked gentleman
walking in their midst.
"Is it you, my lord?" cried Sir Daniel.
"It is I, indeed; and if ever true knight gave proof I am that
man," replied the leader of the second troop; "for who would not
rather face giants, sorcerers, or pagans, than this pinching cold?"
"My lord," returned Sir Daniel, "beauty will be the more beholden,
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