| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Unseen World and Other Essays by John Fiske: to Caliph Omar to know what should be done with the Alexandrian
Library. "If the books agree with the Koran," said the Caliph,
"they are superfluous; if they contradict it, they are damnable;
in either case, destroy them." So the books were taken and used
to light the fires which heated water for the baths; and so vast
was the number that, used in this way, they lasted six months!
All this happened because John the Grammarian was over-anxious
enough to request that the books might be preserved, and thus
drew Amrou's attention to them. Great has been the obloquy poured
upon Omar for this piece of vandalism, and loud has been the
mourning over the treasures of ancient science and literature
The Unseen World and Other Essays |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Paz by Honore de Balzac: were to my soul when the woman I loved was the mainspring of all I
did. I have known the pleasures of maternity in my love. I
accepted life thus. Like the paupers who live along the great
highways, I built myself a hut on the borders of your beautiful
domain, though I never sought to approach you. Poor and lonely,
struck blind by Adam's good fortune, I was, nevertheless, the
giver. Yes, you were surrounded by a love as pure as a guardian-
angel's; it waked while you slept; it caressed you with a look as
you passed; it was happy in its own existence,--you were the sun
of my native land to me, poor exile, who now writes to you with
tears in his eyes as he thinks of the happiness of those first
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Deputy of Arcis by Honore de Balzac: with him to Paris, his horoscope was drawn: it was very certain that
after his first appearance in the salons of the Tuileries an august
seduction would make a henchman of him, if ministerial blandishments
had not already produced that result.
The public side of this matter being thus well-planned and provided
for, the ministerial agent could turn his attention to the personal
aspect of the question, namely, that of turning the stuff he was
making into a deputy to the still further use of being made into a
father-in-law.
First point, the /dot/; second point, the daughter; and both appeared
to suit him. The first did not dazzle him; but as to the second, he
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