| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Laches by Plato: the soothsayer under the general, and not the general under the soothsayer.
Am I not correct in saying so, Laches?
LACHES: Quite correct.
SOCRATES: And do you, Nicias, also acknowledge that the same science has
understanding of the same things, whether future, present, or past?
NICIAS: Yes, indeed Socrates; that is my opinion.
SOCRATES: And courage, my friend, is, as you say, a knowledge of the
fearful and of the hopeful?
NICIAS: Yes.
SOCRATES: And the fearful, and the hopeful, are admitted to be future
goods and future evils?
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Ruling Passion by Henry van Dyke: But it played. And the crank went round. And every bit of glass in
the lantern was as clear as polished crystal. And the big lamp was
full of oil. And the great eye of the friendly giant winked without
ceasing, through fierce storm and placid moonlight.
When the tenth of December came, the light went to sleep for the
winter, and the keepers took their way across the ice to the
mainland. They had won the battle, not only on the island, fighting
against the elements, but also at Dead Men's Point, against public
opinion. The inhabitants began to understand that the lighthouse
meant something--a law, an order, a principle.
Men cannot help feeling respect for a thing when they see others
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Ann Veronica by H. G. Wells: kindly; at times he was almost monosyllabic, and defeated Miss
Garvice's most skilful attempts to draw him out. Sometimes he was
obviously irritable and uncomfortable and unfortunate in his
efforts to seem at ease. And sometimes he overflowed with a
peculiarly malignant wit that played, with devastating effect,
upon any topics that had the courage to face it. Ann Veronica's
experiences of men had been among more stable types--Teddy, who
was always absurd; her father, who was always authoritative and
sentimental; Manning, who was always Manning. And most of the
others she had met had, she felt, the same steadfastness.
Goopes, she was sure was always high-browed and slow and
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