| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Gentle Grafter by O. Henry: don't. Now state a few lies about my not having this swelling in my
left side, and I think I could be propped up and have some sausage and
buckwheat cakes.'
"I made a few passes with my hands.
"'Now,' says I, 'the inflammation's gone. The right lobe of the
perihelion has subsided. You're getting sleepy. You can't hold your
eyes open any longer. For the present the disease is checked. Now, you
are asleep.'
"The Mayor shut his eyes slowly and began to snore.
"'You observe, Mr. Tiddle,' says I, 'the wonders of modern science.'
"'Biddle,' says he, 'When will you give uncle the rest of the
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Chronicles of the Canongate by Walter Scott: wicked spirits were supposed to have especial power over man and
beast.
These legends came across the mind of the clergyman, and,
solitary as he was, a melancholy smile shaded his cheek, as he
thought of the inconsistency of human nature, and reflected how
many brave men, whom the yell of the pibroch would have sent
headlong against fixed bayonets, as the wild bull rushes on his
enemy, might have yet feared to encounter those visionary
terrors, which he himself, a man of peace, and in ordinary perils
no way remarkable for the firmness of his nerves, was now risking
without hesitation.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Wrong Box by Stevenson & Osbourne: you this has been long ago recognized as a mark of aristocratic
government. Do you suppose, in a country really self-governed,
such abuses could exist? Your own intelligence, however
uncultivated, tells you they could not. Take Austria, a country
even possibly more enslaved than England. I have myself conversed
with one of the survivors of the Ring Theatre, and though his
colloquial German was not very good, I succeeded in gathering a
pretty clear idea of his opinion of the case. But, what will
perhaps interest you still more, here is a cutting on the subject
from a Vienna newspaper, which I will now read to you,
translating as I go. You can see for yourselves; it is printed in
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