| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Charmides by Plato: charm. For this,' he said, 'is the great error of our day in the treatment
of the human body, that physicians separate the soul from the body.' And
he added with emphasis, at the same time making me swear to his words, 'Let
no one, however rich, or noble, or fair, persuade you to give him the cure,
without the charm.' Now I have sworn, and I must keep my oath, and
therefore if you will allow me to apply the Thracian charm first to your
soul, as the stranger directed, I will afterwards proceed to apply the cure
to your head. But if not, I do not know what I am to do with you, my dear
Charmides.
Critias, when he heard this, said: The headache will be an unexpected gain
to my young relation, if the pain in his head compels him to improve his
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Concerning Christian Liberty by Martin Luther: >From all this it is easy to perceive on what principle good works
are to be cast aside or embraced, and by what rule all teachings
put forth concerning works are to be understood. For if works are
brought forward as grounds of justification, and are done under
the false persuasion that we can pretend to be justified by them,
they lay on us the yoke of necessity, and extinguish liberty
along with faith, and by this very addition to their use they
become no longer good, but really worthy of condemnation. For
such works are not free, but blaspheme the grace of God, to which
alone it belongs to justify and save through faith. Works cannot
accomplish this, and yet, with impious presumption, through our
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Economist by Xenophon: "C. I. G." 3794.
[16] Lit. Phrourarch, "the commandant."
[17] Or, "Council" at Athens.
[18] Cf. "Hipparch." i. 8, 13.
Nor did my lessons end here (added he); I taught her that she must not
be annoyed should I seem to be enjoining upon her more trouble than
upon any of our domestics with regard to our possessions; pointing out
to her that these domestics have only so far a share in their master's
chattels that they must fetch and carry, tend and guard them; nor have
they the right to use a single one of them except the master grant it.
But to the master himself all things pertain to use as he thinks best.
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