| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Little Rivers by Henry van Dyke: of a lordly ordering of the repast. How much better it is than
having to eat what is flung before you at a summer boarding-house
by a scornful waitress!"
"Another thing that pleases me," continued my lady, "is the
unbreakableness of the dishes. There are no nicks in the edges of
the best plates here; and, oh! it is a happy thing to have a home
without bric-a-brac. There is nothing here that needs to be
dusted."
"And no engagements for to-morrow," I ejaculated. "Dishes that
can't be broken, and plans that can--that's the ideal of
housekeeping."
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The School For Scandal by Richard Brinsley Sheridan: CHARLES. Oh, no!--there can be no doubt. They tell me I'm
a prodigious favourite, and that he talks of leaving me everything.
SIR OLIVER. Indeed! this is the first I've heard of it.
CHARLES. Yes, yes, 'tis just so. Moses knows 'tis true; don't you,
Moses?
MOSES. Oh, yes! I'll swear to't.
SIR OLIVER. Egad, they'll persuade me presently I'm at Bengal.
[Aside.]
CHARLES. Now I propose, Mr. Premium, if it's agreeable to you,
a post-obit on Sir Oliver's life: though at the same time the old
fellow has been so liberal to me, that I give you my word, I should
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Crowd by Gustave le Bon: The best proof of this is that, should they by any circumstance
lose their prestige, their influence disappears.
The prestige of these political leaders is individual, and
independent of name or celebrity: a fact of which M. Jules Simon
gives us some very curious examples in his remarks on the
prominent men of the Assembly of 1848, of which he was a
member:--
"Two months before he was all-powerful, Louis Napoleon was
entirely without the least importance.
"Victor Hugo mounted the tribune. He failed to achieve success.
He was listened to as Felix Pyat was listened to, but he did not
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