| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Sophist by Plato: being, and becomes not-being. Nor can being ever have come into existence,
for nothing comes into existence except as a whole; nor can being have
number, for that which has number is a whole or sum of number. These are a
few of the difficulties which are accumulating one upon another in the
consideration of being.
We may proceed now to the less exact sort of philosophers. Some of them
drag down everything to earth, and carry on a war like that of the giants,
grasping rocks and oaks in their hands. Their adversaries defend
themselves warily from an invisible world, and reduce the substances of
their opponents to the minutest fractions, until they are lost in
generation and flux. The latter sort are civil people enough; but the
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Shakespeare's Sonnets by William Shakespeare: And seal'd false bonds of love as oft as mine,
Robb'd others' beds' revenues of their rents.
Be it lawful I love thee, as thou lov'st those
Whom thine eyes woo as mine importune thee:
Root pity in thy heart, that, when it grows,
Thy pity may deserve to pitied be.
If thou dost seek to have what thou dost hide,
By self-example mayst thou be denied!
CXLIII
Lo, as a careful housewife runs to catch
One of her feather'd creatures broke away,
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The American by Henry James: Few specimens of the human countenance had ever given him such pleasure
as these, lighted in the lurid fashion I have hinted at, and he was
disposed to sip the cup of contemplative revenge in a leisurely fashion.
It must be added, too, that he was at a loss to see exactly
how he could arrange to witness the operation of his thunder.
To send in his card to Madame de Bellegarde would be a waste
of ceremony; she would certainly decline to receive him.
On the other hand he could not force his way into her presence.
It annoyed him keenly to think that he might be reduced to the blind
satisfaction of writing her a letter; but he consoled himself in a
measure with the reflection that a letter might lead to an interview.
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