| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Crito by Plato: covenants and agreements which you made with us at your leisure, not in any
haste or under any compulsion or deception, but after you have had seventy
years to think of them, during which time you were at liberty to leave the
city, if we were not to your mind, or if our covenants appeared to you to
be unfair. You had your choice, and might have gone either to Lacedaemon
or Crete, both which states are often praised by you for their good
government, or to some other Hellenic or foreign state. Whereas you, above
all other Athenians, seemed to be so fond of the state, or, in other words,
of us her laws (and who would care about a state which has no laws?), that
you never stirred out of her; the halt, the blind, the maimed, were not
more stationary in her than you were. And now you run away and forsake
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from A Legend of Montrose by Walter Scott: in my camp, all must be upon equality, like the Knights of the
Round Table; and take their places as soldiers should, upon the
principle of,--first come, first served."
"Then I shall take care," said Menteith, apart to the Marquis,
"that Don Dugald is not first in place to-day.--Sir Dugald,"
added he, raising his voice, "as you say your wardrobe is out of
repair, had you not better go to the enemy's baggage yonder, over
which there is a guard placed? I saw them take out an excellent
buff suit, embroidered in front in silk and silver."
"VOTO A DIOS! as the Spaniard says," exclaimed the Major, "and
some beggarly gilly may get it while I stand prating here!"
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Maria, or the Wrongs of Woman by Mary Wollstonecraft: thrown after me, when it had been contemptuously examined in the
passage, lest I should have stolen any thing.
"Behold me then in the street, utterly destitute! Whither
could I creep for shelter? To my father's roof I had no claim, when
not pursued by shame--now I shrunk back as from death, from my
mother's cruel reproaches, my father's execrations. I could not
endure to hear him curse the day I was born, though life had been
a curse to me. Of death I thought, but with a confused emotion of
terror, as I stood leaning my head on a post, and starting at every
footstep, lest it should be my mistress coming to tear my heart
out. One of the boys of the shop passing by, heard my tale, and
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