| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Commission in Lunacy by Honore de Balzac: Popinot had had a mania for much linen; in the Flemish fashion,
perhaps, she had given herself the trouble of a great wash no more
than twice a year. The old man's coat and waistcoat were in harmony
with his trousers, shoes, stockings, and linen. He always had the luck
of his carelessness; for, the first day he put on a new coat, he
unfailingly matched it with the rest of his costume by staining it
with incredible promptitude. The good man waited till his housekeeper
told him that his hat was too shabby before buying a new one. His
necktie was always crumpled and starchless, and he never set his dog-
eared shirt collar straight after his judge's bands had disordered it.
He took no care of his gray hair, and shaved but twice a week. He
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Republic by Plato: identification of ethics with politics has a tendency to give definiteness
to ethics, and also to elevate and ennoble men's notions of the aims of
government and of the duties of citizens; for ethics from one point of view
may be conceived as an idealized law and politics; and politics, as ethics
reduced to the conditions of human society. There have been evils which
have arisen out of the attempt to identify them, and this has led to the
separation or antagonism of them, which has been introduced by modern
political writers. But we may likewise feel that something has been lost
in their separation, and that the ancient philosophers who estimated the
moral and intellectual wellbeing of mankind first, and the wealth of
nations and individuals second, may have a salutary influence on the
The Republic |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Caesar's Commentaries in Latin by Julius Caesar: est ad Hispaniam pertinet; spectat inter occasum solis et septentriones.]
Apud Helvetios longe nobilissimus fuit et ditissimus Orgetorix. Is
M. Messala, [et P.] M. Pisone consulibus regni cupiditate inductus
coniurationem nobilitatis fecit et civitati persuasit ut de finibus suis
cum omnibus copiis exirent: perfacile esse, cum virtute omnibus
praestarent, totius Galliae imperio potiri. Id hoc facilius iis
persuasit, quod undique loci natura Helvetii continentur: una ex parte
flumine Rheno latissimo atque altissimo, qui agrum Helvetium a Germanis
dividit; altera ex parte monte Iura altissimo, qui est inter Sequanos et
Helvetios; tertia lacu Lemanno et flumine Rhodano, qui provinciam nostram
ab Helvetiis dividit. His rebus fiebat ut et minus late vagarentur et
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