| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Pericles by William Shakespeare: FIRST FISHERMAN.
Die quoth-a? Now gods forbid! I have a gown here; come, put it
on; keep thee warm. Now, afore me, a handsome fellow! Come,
thou shalt go home, and we'll have flesh for holidays, fish for
fasting-days, and moreo'er puddings and flap-jacks, and thou
shalt be welcome.
PERICLES.
I thank you, sir.
SECOND FISHERMAN.
Hark you, my friend; you said you could not beg.
PERICLES.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from An Old Maid by Honore de Balzac: complained; he praised his adversaries when they lost; he did not
rebuke or teach his partners by showing them how they ought to have
played. When, in the course of a deal, those sickening dissertations
on the game would take place, the chevalier invariably drew out his
snuff-box with a gesture that was worthy of Mole, looked at the
Princess Goritza, raised the cover with dignity, shook, sifted, massed
the snuff, and gathered his pinch, so that by the time the cards were
dealt he had decorated both nostrils and replaced the princess in his
waistcoat pocket,--always on his left side. A gentleman of the "good"
century (in distinction from the "grand" century) could alone have
invented that compromise between contemptuous silence and a sarcasm
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Meno by Plato: have enquired whether virtue is given by instruction or not, until we had
first ascertained 'what it is.' But as you think only of controlling me
who am your slave, and never of controlling yourself,--such being your
notion of freedom, I must yield to you, for you are irresistible. And
therefore I have now to enquire into the qualities of a thing of which I do
not as yet know the nature. At any rate, will you condescend a little, and
allow the question 'Whether virtue is given by instruction, or in any other
way,' to be argued upon hypothesis? As the geometrician, when he is asked
whether a certain triangle is capable being inscribed in a certain circle
(Or, whether a certain area is capable of being inscribed as a triangle in
a certain circle.), will reply: 'I cannot tell you as yet; but I will
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