| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Timaeus by Plato: philosopher expects to find them, and to those in which he would never
think of looking for them, such as physiology and psychology. For the
sciences were not yet divided, and there was nothing really irrational in
arguing that the same laws which regulated the heavenly bodies were
partially applied to the erring limbs or brain of man. Astrology was the
form which the lively fancy of ancient thinkers almost necessarily gave to
astronomy. The observation that the lower principle, e.g. mechanics, is
always seen in the higher, e.g. in the phenomena of life, further tended to
perplex them. Plato's doctrine of the same and the other ruling the
courses of the heavens and of the human body is not a mere vagary, but is a
natural result of the state of knowledge and thought at which he had
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Manon Lescaut by Abbe Prevost: consequences, he thought he was bound to treat me with more
mildness and indulgence. He visited me two or three times a day;
he often made me take a turn with him in the garden, and showed
his interest for me in his exhortations and good advice. I
listened always attentively; and warmly expressed my sense of his
kindness, from which he derived hopes of my ultimate conversion.
"`You appear to me,' said he one day, `of a disposition so mild
and tractable, that I cannot comprehend the excesses into which
you have fallen. Two things astonish me: one is, how, with your
good qualities, you could have ever abandoned yourself to vice;
and the other, which amazes me still more, is, how you can
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from A Hero of Our Time by M.Y. Lermontov: you should obey me in everything now. . . But
serve you right! Die like a fly!" . . .
He turned away, muttering as he went:
"But all the same it is absolutely against the
rules."
"Grushnitski!" I said. "There is still time:
recant your slander, and I will forgive you every-
thing. You have not succeeded in making a fool
of me; my self-esteem is satisfied. Remem-
ber -- we were once friends" . . .
His face flamed, his eyes flashed.
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