The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Economist by Xenophon: with Xenophon, but it has no single name in English.
Soc. Nay, now in Heaven's name, once more, how can that be? I always
thought it was beyond the power of any teacher to teach these
virtues.[8]
[8] For the Socratic problem {ei arete didakte} see Grote, "H. G."
viii. 599.
Isch. Nor is it possible, you are right so far, to teach such
excellences to every single soul in order as simply as a man might
number off his fingers.
Soc. Pray, then, what sort of people have the privilege?[9] Should you
mind pointing them out to me with some distinctness?
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Under the Andes by Rex Stout: strange brokenness about its appearance that made me consider it
more carefully.
It appeared to be composed of curious knots and protuberances.
I stopped short, and, advancing a step or two toward the wall,
gazed intently. Then I saw that the dark line was not a part of
the wall at all; and then--well, then I laughed aloud in spite of
myself. The thing was too ludicrous.
For that "dark line" along the bottom of the wall was a row of
squatting Incas! There they sat, silent, motionless; even when my
laugh rang out through the cavern they gave not the slightest sign
that they either heard or saw. Yet it was certain that they had
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Court Life in China by Isaac Taylor Headland: Empress Dowager's years of training.
III
The Empress Dowager--As a Ruler
That a Manchu woman who had had such narrow opportunities of
obtaining a knowledge of things as they really are, in
distinction from the tissue of shams which constitute the warp
and the woof of an Oriental Palace, should have been able to hold
her own in every situation, and never be crushed by the opposing
forces about her, is a phenomenon in itself only to be explained
by due recognition of the influence of individual qualities in a
ruler even in the semi-absolutism of China.
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