| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Alcibiades I by Plato: for they are agreed about the one, but they are not agreed about the other:
and therefore Alcibiades, who has admitted that if he knows he must either
have learned from a master or have discovered for himself the nature of
justice, is convicted out of his own mouth.
Alcibiades rejoins, that the Athenians debate not about what is just, but
about what is expedient; and he asserts that the two principles of justice
and expediency are opposed. Socrates, by a series of questions, compels
him to admit that the just and the expedient coincide. Alcibiades is thus
reduced to the humiliating conclusion that he knows nothing of politics,
even if, as he says, they are concerned with the expedient.
However, he is no worse than other Athenian statesmen; and he will not need
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Blue Flower by Henry van Dyke: speak. You are killing her, that is what you are doing with
your devilish moods and mysteries. You must stop. Do you
hear? You must give her up."
"I hear well enough, and it sounds like a word for her and
two for yourself. Is that it?"
"Damn you," cried the younger man, "let the words go!
we'll settle it this way"----and he sprang at the other's
throat.
Keene, cool and well-braced, met him with a heavy blow in
the chest. He recoiled, and I rushed between them, holding
Graham back, and pleading for self-control. As we stood thus,
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from A Simple Soul by Gustave Flaubert: through the same thing herself.
The murmur of the crowd grew louder, was very distinct for a moment
and then died away. A volley of musketry shook the window-panes. It
was the postilions saluting the Sacrament. Felicite rolled her eyes,
and said as loudly as she could:
"Is he all right?" meaning the parrot.
Her death agony began. A rattle that grew more and more rapid shook
her body. Froth appeared at the corners of her mouth, and her whole
frame trembled. In a little while could be heard the music of the bass
horns, the clear voices of the children and the men's deeper notes. At
intervals all was still, and their shoes sounded like a herd of cattle
A Simple Soul |
