| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Symposium by Plato: Socrates (for of the real Socrates this may be doubted: compare his public
rebuke of Critias for his shameful love of Euthydemus in Xenophon,
Memorabilia) does not regard the greatest evil of Greek life as a thing not
to be spoken of; but it has a ridiculous element (Plato's Symp.), and is a
subject for irony, no less than for moral reprobation (compare Plato's
Symp.). It is also used as a figure of speech which no one interpreted
literally (compare Xen. Symp.). Nor does Plato feel any repugnance, such
as would be felt in modern times, at bringing his great master and hero
into connexion with nameless crimes. He is contented with representing him
as a saint, who has won 'the Olympian victory' over the temptations of
human nature. The fault of taste, which to us is so glaring and which was
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Wyoming by William MacLeod Raine: out of the doorway, the desperado vaulted to the saddle and drove
his spurs home. For a minute hoofs pounded on the hard, white
road. Then the night swallowed him and the echo of his
disappearance.
"That was Bannister of the Shoshones and the Tetons," the girl's
white lips pronounced to Lieutenant Beecher.
"And I let him get away from me," the disappointed lad groaned.
"Why, I had him right in my hands. I could have throttled him as
easy. But how was I to know he would have nerve enough to come
rushing into a hotel full of soldiers hunting him?"
"Y'u have a very persistent cousin, Mr. Bannister," said
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Witch, et. al by Anton Chekhov: in the house. The mournful song stirred a longing for life and
freedom. Sofya began to laugh; she thought it sinful and terrible
and sweet to hear about, and she felt envious and sorry that she,
too, had not been a sinner when she was young and pretty.
In the churchyard they heard twelve strokes beaten on the
watchman's board.
"It's time we were asleep," said Sofya, getting up, "or, maybe,
we shall catch it from Dyudya."
They both went softly into the yard.
"I went away without hearing what he was telling about Mashenka,"
said Varvara, making herself a bed under the window.
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