| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Statesman by Plato: the mind, the characters of men. The two classes both have their
exaggerations; and the exaggerations of the one are termed 'hardness,'
'violence,' 'madness;' of the other 'cowardliness,' or 'sluggishness.' And
if we pursue the enquiry, we find that these opposite characters are
naturally at variance, and can hardly be reconciled. In lesser matters the
antagonism between them is ludicrous, but in the State may be the occasion
of grave disorders, and may disturb the whole course of human life. For
the orderly class are always wanting to be at peace, and hence they pass
imperceptibly into the condition of slaves; and the courageous sort are
always wanting to go to war, even when the odds are against them, and are
soon destroyed by their enemies. But the true art of government, first
Statesman |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions by Edwin A. Abbot: of a village has been sometimes destroyed in one or two hours
of simultaneous female outbreak. Hence the Three Laws,
mentioned above, suffice for the better regulated States,
and may be accepted as a rough exemplification of our Female Code.
After all, our principal safeguard is found, not in Legislature,
but in the interests of the Women themselves. For, although they can
inflict instantaneous death by a retrograde movement,
yet unless they can at once disengage their stinging extremity
from the struggling body of their victim, their own frail bodies
are liable to be shattered.
The power of Fashion is also on our side. I pointed out that in some
Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Europeans by Henry James: a service he consented to render, as a friendly turn to a
fellow-citizen. Then he invited the Baroness to descend,
and the two wandered away, across the grass, and sat down on
the log beside the brook.
"I imagine it does n't remind you of Silberstadt," said Acton.
It was the first time that he had mentioned Silberstadt to her,
for particular reasons. He knew she had a husband there,
and this was disagreeable to him; and, furthermore, it had been
repeated to him that this husband wished to put her away--a state
of affairs to which even indirect reference was to be deprecated.
It was true, nevertheless, that the Baroness herself had often
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