| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from My Aunt Margaret's Mirror by Walter Scott: remember that you are a husband and a father; and that, though
you think fit to indulge this military fancy, you will not let it
hurry you into dangers which it is certainly unnecessary for any
save professional persons to encounter."
"Lady Bothwell does me too much honour," replied the adventurous
knight, "in regarding such a circumstance with the slightest
interest. But to soothe your flattering anxiety, I trust your
ladyship will recollect that I cannot expose to hazard the
venerable and paternal character which you so obligingly
recommend to my protection, without putting in some peril an
honest fellow, called Philip Forester, with whom I have kept
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Lay Morals by Robert Louis Stevenson: the style, to compare it with the clear, simple, vigorous
delineation that Burns, in four couplets, has given us of the
ploughman's collie. It is interesting, at first, and then it
becomes a little irritating; for when we think of other
passages so much more finished and adroit, we cannot help
feeling, that with a little more ardour after perfection of
form, criticism would have found nothing left for her to
censure. A similar mark of precipitate work is the number of
adjectives tumultuously heaped together, sometimes to help
out the sense, and sometimes (as one cannot but suspect) to
help out the sound of the verses. I do not believe, for
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Lay Morals by Robert Louis Stevenson: 'Muckle obleeged!' says Haddo, winking.
'You and me have been to kirk and market together,' pursued
M'Brair; 'we have had blessed seasons in the kirk, we have
sat in the same teaching-rooms and read in the same book; and
I know you still retain for me some carnal kindness. It
would be my shame if I denied it; I live here at your mercy
and by your favour, and glory to acknowledge it. You have
pity on my wretched body, which is but grass, and must soon
be trodden under: but O, Haddo! how much greater is the
yearning with which I yearn after and pity your immortal
soul! Come now, let us reason together! I drop all points
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