| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Bickerstaff-Partridge Papers by Jonathan Swift: my own curiosity, I have for some days past enquired constantly
after Partridge the almanack-maker, of whom it was foretold in
Mr. Bickerstaff's predictions, publish'd about a month ago, that
he should die on the 29th instant about eleven at night of a
raging fever. I had some sort of knowledge of him when I was
employ'd in the Revenue, because he used every year to present me
with his almanack, as he did other gentlemen, upon the score of
some little gratuity we gave him. I saw him accidentally once or
twice about ten days before he died, and observed he began very
much to droop and languish, tho' I hear his friends did not seem
to apprehend him in any danger. About two or three days ago he
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Inaugural Address by John F. Kennedy: come not from the generosity of the state but from the hand of God.
We dare not forget today that we are the heirs of that first revolution.
Let the word go forth from this time and place. . .to friend and foe alike. . .
that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans. . .
born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace,
proud of our ancient heritage. . .and unwilling to witness or permit the slow
undoing of those human rights to which this nation has always been committed,
and to which we are committed today. . .at home and around the world.
Let every nation know. . .whether it wishes us well or ill. . .
that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship,
support any friend, oppose any foe, to assure the survival and
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Lesson of the Master by Henry James: of any baser metal. I've led the life of the world, with my wife
and my progeny; the clumsy conventional expensive materialised
vulgarised brutalised life of London. We've got everything
handsome, even a carriage - we're perfect Philistines and
prosperous hospitable eminent people. But, my dear fellow, don't
try to stultify yourself and pretend you don't know what we HAVEN'T
got. It's bigger than all the rest. Between artists - come!" the
Master wound up. "You know as well as you sit there that you'd put
a pistol-ball into your brain if you had written my books!"
It struck his listener that the tremendous talk promised by him at
Summersoft had indeed come off, and with a promptitude, a fulness,
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