| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Cratylus by Plato: way to have a pure mind, and the name Uranus is therefore correct. If I
could remember the genealogy of Hesiod, I would have gone on and tried more
conclusions of the same sort on the remoter ancestors of the Gods,--then I
might have seen whether this wisdom, which has come to me all in an
instant, I know not whence, will or will not hold good to the end.
HERMOGENES: You seem to me, Socrates, to be quite like a prophet newly
inspired, and to be uttering oracles.
SOCRATES: Yes, Hermogenes, and I believe that I caught the inspiration
from the great Euthyphro of the Prospaltian deme, who gave me a long
lecture which commenced at dawn: he talked and I listened, and his wisdom
and enchanting ravishment has not only filled my ears but taken possession
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Prince Otto by Robert Louis Stevenson: enough for after-dinner talk, and you propose to force it as a CASUS
BELLI.'
'Certainly, your Highness,' returned Gondremark, too wise to defend
the indefensible, 'the claim on Obermunsterol is simply a pretext.'
'It is well,' said the Prince. 'Herr Cancellarius, take your pen.
"The council," he began to dictate - 'I withhold all notice of my
intervention,' he said, in parenthesis, and addressing himself more
directly to his wife; 'and I say nothing of the strange suppression
by which this business has been smuggled past my knowledge. I am
content to be in time - "The council,"' he resumed, '"on a further
examination of the facts, and enlightened by the note in the last
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The War in the Air by H. G. Wells: to another. What chiefly concerned them was defence against
Asiatic raiders swooping for petrol or to destroy weapons or
communications. Everywhere levies were being formed at that time
to defend the plant of the railroads day and night in the hope
that communication would speedily be restored. The land war was
still far away. A man with a flat voice distinguished himself by
a display of knowledge and cunning. He told them all with
confidence just what had been wrong with the German
drachenflieger and the American aeroplanes, just what advantage
the Japanese flyers possessed. He launched out into a romantic
description of the Butteridge machine and riveted Bert's
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