| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Astoria by Washington Irving: plans and with his resources, but he preferred to do so under the
imposing and formidable aspect of a corporation, rather than in
his individual name, and his policy was sagacious and effective.
As the Mackinaw Company still continued its rivalry, and as the
fur trade would not advantageously admit of competition, he made
a new arrangement in 1811, by which, in conjunction with certain
partners of the Northwest Company, and other persons engaged in
the fur trade, he bought out the Mackinaw Company, and merged
that and the American Fur Company into a new association, to be
called the "Southwest Company." This he likewise did with the
privity and approbation of the American government.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Large Catechism by Dr. Martin Luther: From this you perceive that we pray here not for a crust of bread or a
temporal, perishable good, but for an eternal inestimable treasure and
everything that God Himself possesses; which is far too great for any
human heart to think of desiring if He had not Himself commanded us to
pray for the same. But because He is God, He also claims the honor of
giving much more and more abundantly than any one can comprehend, --
like an eternal, unfailing fountain, which, the more it pours forth and
overflows, the more it continues to give, -- and He desires nothing
more earnestly of us than that we ask much and great things of Him, and
again is angry if we do not ask and pray confidently.
For just as when the richest and most mighty emperor would bid a poor
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Theaetetus by Plato: spirit is broken in a wicked man who listens to reproof until he becomes
like a child; or the punishment of the wicked, which is not physical
suffering, but the perpetual companionship of evil (compare Gorgias); or
the saying, often repeated by Aristotle and others, that 'philosophy begins
in wonder, for Iris is the child of Thaumas'; or the superb contempt with
which the philosopher takes down the pride of wealthy landed proprietors by
comparison of the whole earth. (3) Important metaphysical ideas are: a.
the conception of thought, as the mind talking to herself; b. the notion of
a common sense, developed further by Aristotle, and the explicit
declaration, that the mind gains her conceptions of Being, sameness,
number, and the like, from reflection on herself; c. the excellent
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