| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Prince by Nicolo Machiavelli: with Philip and Antiochus in Greece so as not to have to do it in
Italy; they could have avoided both, but this they did not wish; nor
did that ever please them which is for ever in the mouths of the wise
ones of our time:--Let us enjoy the benefits of the time--but rather
the benefits of their own valour and prudence, for time drives
everything before it, and is able to bring with it good as well as
evil, and evil as well as good.
[*] See remark in the introduction on the word "intrattenere."
But let us turn to France and inquire whether she has done any of the
things mentioned. I will speak of Louis[*] (and not of Charles[+]) as
the one whose conduct is the better to be observed, he having held
The Prince |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from A Journal of the Plague Year by Daniel Defoe: opinion of physicians abroad seems to be that it may lie dormant in
the spirits or in the blood-vessels a very considerable time. Why else
do they exact a quarantine of those who came into their harbours and
ports from suspected places? Forty days is, one would think, too long
for nature to struggle with such an enemy as this, and not conquer it or
yield to it. But I could not think, by my own observation, that they
can be infected so as to be contagious to others above fifteen or
sixteen days at furthest; and on that score it was, that when a house
was shut up in the city and any one had died of the plague, but nobody
appeared to be ill in the family for sixteen or eighteen days after, they
were not so strict but that they would connive at their going privately
A Journal of the Plague Year |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Juana by Honore de Balzac: in truth, he was a gambler, and gamblers may be said to have nothing
of their own. Montefiore was also a gambler, and all the officers of
the regiment played with the pair; for, to the shame of men be it
said, it is not a rare thing to see persons gambling together around a
green table who, when the game is finished, will not bow to their
companions, feeling no respect for them. Montefiore was the man with
whom Bianchi made his bet about the heart of the Spanish sentinel.
Montefiore and Diard were among the last to mount the breach at
Tarragona, but the first in the heart of the town as soon as it was
taken. Accidents of this sort happen in all attacks, but with this
pair of friends they were customary. Supporting each other, they made
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