| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Dead Souls by Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol: require of mere infants--namely the superior frame of mind which,
while never indulging in mockery, can itself bear ridicule, and
disregard the fool, and keep its temper, and repress itself, and
eschew revenge, and calmly, proudly retain its tranquillity of soul.
In short, whatever avails to form a boy into a man of assured
character, that did Alexander Petrovitch employ during the pupil's
youth, as well as constantly put him to the test. How well he
understood the art of life!
Of assistant tutors he kept but few, since most of the necessary
instruction he imparted in person, and, without pedantic terminology
and inflated diction and views, could so transmit to his listeners the
Dead Souls |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Court Life in China by Isaac Taylor Headland: Great Britain, Germany, France, and Italy, and who has been in
even more intimate contact with the diplomats and other
foreigners than has Prince Chun himself. My wife and I have dined
with him and the Princess both at the American legation and at
his own palace, and when we left China, they came together in
their brougham to bid us good-bye, a thing which could not have
happened a few years ago, and an indication of how wide open the
doors in China are now standing.
On the whole, therefore, Prince Chun begins his regency with a
brighter outlook for his foreign relations than any other ruler
China has ever had. What shall we say of his Chinese relations?
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Underground City by Jules Verne: Beyond the wide Firth could be seen the soft outlines of the county
of Fife, while beneath the spectator stretched the yellow sands
of Portobello and Newhaven.
Nell could not speak. Her lips murmured a word or two indistinctly;
she trembled, became giddy, her strength failed her;
overcome by the purity of the air and the sublimity of the scene,
she sank fainting into Harry's arms, who, watching her closely,
was ready to support her.
The youthful maiden, hitherto entombed in the massive depths
of the earth, had now obtained an idea of the universe--
of the works both of God and of man. She had looked upon town
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