| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Hellenica by Xenophon: to rebuild the portion of the wall severed by Praxitas. Accordingly
they set out with their whole force, including a suite of stonelayers,
masons, and carpenters, and within a few days erected a quite splendid
wall on the side facing Sicyon towards the west,[18] and then
proceeded with more leisure to the completion of the eastern portion.
[18] See Thuc. vi. 98.
To turn once more to the other side: the Lacedaemonians, indignant at
the notion that the Argives should be gathering the produce of their
lands in peace at home, as if war were a pastime, marched against
them. Agesilaus commanded the expedition, and after ravaging their
territory from one end to the other, crossed their frontier at
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin: became every day of less importance, as the other hands improv'd
in the business; and, when Keimer paid my second quarter's wages,
he let me know that he felt them too heavy, and thought I should
make an abatement. He grew by degrees less civil, put on more of
the master, frequently found fault, was captious, and seem'd ready for
an outbreaking. I went on, nevertheless, with a good deal of patience,
thinking that his encumber'd circumstances were partly the cause.
At length a trifle snapt our connections; for, a great noise happening
near the court-house, I put my head out of the window to see what
was the matter. Keimer, being in the street, look'd up and saw me,
call'd out to me in a loud voice and angry tone to mind my business,
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson by Mark Twain: and he gazed at the polished surface before him with the
glassy stare of a corpse.
"Great heavens, what's the matter with you, Wilson?
Are you going to faint?"
Tom sprang for a glass of water and offered it, but Wilson
shrank shuddering from him and said:
"No, no!--take it away!" His breast was rising and falling,
and he moved his head about in a dull and wandering way, like a
person who had been stunned. Presently he said, "I shall feel
better when I get to bed; I have been overwrought today;
yes, and overworked for many days."
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