| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte by Karl Marx: be inestimable during the approaching critical days.
For the assistance of those who, unfamiliar with the history of France,
may be confused by some of the terms used by Marx, the following
explanations may prove aidful:
On the 18th Brumaire (Nov. 9th), the post-revolutionary development of
affairs in France enabled the first Napoleon to take a step that led
with inevitable certainty to the imperial throne. The circumstance that
fifty and odd years later similar events aided his nephew, Louis
Bonaparte, to take a similar step with a similar result, gives the name
to this work--"The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte."
As to the other terms and allusions that occur, the following sketch
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Odyssey by Homer: "Cannot some one go up to the trap door and tell the people what
is going on? Help would come at once, and we should soon make an
end of this man and his shooting."
"This may not be, Agelaus," answered Melanthius, "the mouth of
the narrow passage is dangerously near the entrance to the outer
court. One brave man could prevent any number from getting in.
But I know what I will do, I will bring you arms from the
store-room, for I am sure it is there that Ulysses and his son
have put them."
On this the goatherd Melanthius went by back passages to the
store-room of Ulysses' house. There he chose twelve shields,
 The Odyssey |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Confidence by Henry James: "This certainly is not one of those cases," said Angela.
"The thing is surely very simple now."
"What makes it so simple?"
She hesitated a moment.
"The fact that I ask you to stay."
"You ask me?" he repeated, softly.
"Ah," she exclaimed, "one does n't say those things twice!"
She turned away, and they went back to her mother, who gave Bernard
a wonderful little look of half urgent, half remonstrant inquiry.
As they left the garden he walked beside Mrs. Vivian, Angela going
in front of them at a distance. The elder lady began immediately
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