| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Wrecker by Stevenson & Osbourne: glancing the while over Goddedaal's log. "Hullo!" he said,
"this'll never do for us--this is an impossible kind of a yarn.
Here, to begin with, is this Captain Trent trying some fancy
course, leastways he's a thousand miles to south'ard of the great
circle. And here, it seems, he was close up with this island on
the sixth, sails all these days, and is close up with it again by
daylight on the eleventh."
"Goddedaal said they had the deuce's luck," said Carthew.
"Well, it don't look like real life--that's all I can say," returned
Wicks.
"It's the way it was, though," argued Carthew.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas: letter from her intended. I know that such viands pass with
difficulty through convent gratings; but after all, as I have
given you proofs, my dear cousin, I am not unskilled in such
affairs, and I will take charge of the commission. My sister
thanks you for your good and eternal remembrance. She has
experienced much anxiety; but she is now at length a little
reassured, having sent her secretary away in order that nothing
may happen unexpectedly.
"Adieu, my dear cousin. Tell us news of yourself as often as you
can; that is to say, as often as you can with safety. I embrace
you.
The Three Musketeers |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from A Straight Deal by Owen Wister: down through the years ever since, there have been Sam Johnsons writing
and saying unfavorable things about us. The Tory must be eternal, as much
as the Whig or Liberal; and both are always needed. There will probably
always be Sam Johnsons in England, just like the one who was scandalized
by our Chicago packing-house disclosures. No longer ago than June 1,
1919, a Sam Johnson, who was discussing the Peace Treaty, said in my
hearing, in London:
"The Yankees shouldn't have been brought into any consultation. They
aided and abetted Germany."
In Littell's Living Age of July 20, 1918, pages 151-160, you may read an
interesting account of British writers on the United States. The bygone
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