| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Agesilaus by Xenophon: imperishable monuments of prowess, and bore away on his own body
indelible marks of the fury with which he fought;[1] so that, apart
from hearsay, by the evidence of men's eyes his valour stood approved.
[1] Or, "visible signs of the spirit," etc. See Plut. "Ages." xxxvi.
And amongst these we must not deem them trophies alone which he
actually set up, but reckon the many campaigns which he undertook,
since they were victories truly, even when the enemy refused to
encounter him, victories devoid of danger, yet fraught with even more
solid advantage to the state of Sparta and her fellow-combatants; just
as in our games we crown as victor him who walks over the field[2] no
less than him who conquers by dint of battle.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Weir of Hermiston by Robert Louis Stevenson: He reined in his horse and looked upon her with the hanging face.
"Has the French landit?" cried he.
"Man, man," she said, "is that a' ye can think of? The Lord prepare ye:
the Lord comfort and support ye!"
"Is onybody deid?" said his lordship. "It's no Erchie?"
"Bethankit, no!" exclaimed the woman, startled into a more natural tone.
"Na, na, it's no sae bad as that. It's the mistress, my lord; she just
fair flittit before my e'en. She just gi'ed a sab and was by wi' it.
Eh, my bonny Miss Jeannie, that I mind sae weel!" And forth again upon
that pouring tide of lamentation in which women of her class excel and
over-abound.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from An Historical Mystery by Honore de Balzac: his ear: "What have you done with the senator? You had better make a
clean breast of it, for if we are to believe these people it is a
matter of life or death to you."
"Good God!" cried Marthe, who overheard the last words and fell into a
chair as if annihilated.
"Violette must have played us some infamous trick," cried Michu,
recollecting what Laurence had said in the forest.
"Ha! so you do know that Violette saw you?" said the justice of peace.
Michu bit his lips and resolved to say no more. Gothard imitated him.
Seeing the uselessness of all attempts to make them talk, and knowing
what the neighborhood chose to call Michu's perversity, the justice
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