| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Philebus by Plato: that Socrates shall answer his own questions, as well as other defects of
style, which remind us of the Laws. The connection is often abrupt and
inharmonious, and far from clear. Many points require further explanation;
e.g. the reference of pleasure to the indefinite class, compared with the
assertion which almost immediately follows, that pleasure and pain
naturally have their seat in the third or mixed class: these two
statements are unreconciled. In like manner, the table of goods does not
distinguish between the two heads of measure and symmetry; and though a
hint is given that the divine mind has the first place, nothing is said of
this in the final summing up. The relation of the goods to the sciences
does not appear; though dialectic may be thought to correspond to the
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Master Key by L. Frank Baum: and disappeared."
"Then," said the boy, thoughtfully, "I've reached home just in time."
"In time for what?" she asked.
But he did not answer that question. He was thinking of the Demon,
and that on the afternoon of this very day he might expect the wise
and splendid genius to visit him a second time.
At luncheon, although he did not feel hungry, he joined the family at
the table and pleased his mother by eating as heartily as of old. He
was surprised to find how good the food tasted, and to realize what a
pleasure it is to gratify one's sense of taste. The tablets were all
right for a journey, he thought, but if he always ate them he would be
 The Master Key |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Lysis by Plato: Ah, Hippothales, I said; what a noble and really perfect love you have
found! I wish that you would favour me with the exhibition which you have
been making to the rest of the company, and then I shall be able to judge
whether you know what a lover ought to say about his love, either to the
youth himself, or to others.
Nay, Socrates, he said; you surely do not attach any importance to what he
is saying.
Do you mean, I said, that you disown the love of the person whom he says
that you love?
No; but I deny that I make verses or address compositions to him.
He is not in his right mind, said Ctesippus; he is talking nonsense, and is
 Lysis |