| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Moran of the Lady Letty by Frank Norris: Yups and Sam Yups."
Moran fell thoughtful, digging her boot-heel into the sand, her
thumbs hooked into her belt, her forehead gathered into a heavy
frown. There was a silence.
"One thing," she said, at last; "we can't give up the schooner.
They would take our stores as well, and then where are we?
Marooned, by Jove! How far do you suppose we are from the nearest
town? Three hundred miles wouldn't be a bad guess, and they've got
the loot--our ambergris--I'll swear to that. They didn't leave
that aboard when the junk sank."
"Look here, Charlie," she said, turning to the Chinaman. "If the
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Parmenides by Plato: anything to be or not to be, or to be in any way affected, you must look at
the consequences in relation to the thing itself, and to any other things
which you choose,--to each of them singly, to more than one, and to all;
and so of other things, you must look at them in relation to themselves and
to anything else which you suppose either to be or not to be, if you would
train yourself perfectly and see the real truth.
That, Parmenides, is a tremendous business of which you speak, and I do not
quite understand you; will you take some hypothesis and go through the
steps?--then I shall apprehend you better.
That, Socrates, is a serious task to impose on a man of my years.
Then will you, Zeno? said Socrates.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Phaedrus by Plato: have reached the wall come back, as Herodicus recommends, without going in,
I will keep you company.
PHAEDRUS: What do you mean, my good Socrates? How can you imagine that my
unpractised memory can do justice to an elaborate work, which the greatest
rhetorician of the age spent a long time in composing. Indeed, I cannot; I
would give a great deal if I could.
SOCRATES: I believe that I know Phaedrus about as well as I know myself,
and I am very sure that the speech of Lysias was repeated to him, not once
only, but again and again;--he insisted on hearing it many times over and
Lysias was very willing to gratify him; at last, when nothing else would
do, he got hold of the book, and looked at what he most wanted to see,--
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