| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Protagoras by Plato: 'sophistry.' There is nothing however in the introduction which leads to
the inference that Plato intended to blacken the character of the Sophists;
he only makes a little merry at their expense.
The 'great personage' is somewhat ostentatious, but frank and honest. He
is introduced on a stage which is worthy of him--at the house of the rich
Callias, in which are congregated the noblest and wisest of the Athenians.
He considers openness to be the best policy, and particularly mentions his
own liberal mode of dealing with his pupils, as if in answer to the
favourite accusation of the Sophists that they received pay. He is
remarkable for the good temper which he exhibits throughout the discussion
under the trying and often sophistical cross-examination of Socrates.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Intentions by Oscar Wilde: merchants; and, as Leda, was the mother of Helen of Troy, and, as
St. Anne, the mother of Mary; and all this has been to her but as
the sound of lyres and flutes, and lives only in the delicacy with
which it has moulded the changing lineaments, and tinged the
eyelids and the hands.' And I say to my friend, 'The presence that
thus so strangely rose beside the waters is expressive of what in
the ways of a thousand years man had come to desire'; and he
answers me, 'Hers is the head upon which all "the ends of the world
are come," and the eyelids are a little weary.'
And so the picture becomes more wonderful to us than it really is,
and reveals to us a secret of which, in truth, it knows nothing,
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Paz by Honore de Balzac: the saying is, to my own specialty?"
"In truth, my dear captain, you are neither a talker nor a man of the
world, but you are perhaps Polish."
"Therefore leave me to look after your pleasures, your property, your
household--it is all I am good for."
"Tartufe! pooh!" cried Adam, laughing. "My dear, he is full of ardor;
he is thoroughly educated; he can, if he chooses, hold his own in any
salon. Clementine, don't believe his modesty."
"Adieu, comtesse; I have obeyed your wishes so far; and now I will
take the carriage and go home to bed and send it back for you."
Clementine bowed her head and let him go without replying.
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