| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from A Start in Life by Honore de Balzac: master to his own advantage, or rake in for himself alone all the hay
in the manger, but, even while laying up capital by actions more or
less illicit, there are few men who never do good ones. If only from
self-love, curiosity, or by way of variety, or by chance, every man
has his moment of beneficence; he may call it his error, he may never
do it again, but he sacrifices to Goodness, as the most surly man
sacrifices to the Graces once or twice in his life. If Moreau's faults
can ever be excused, it might be on the score of his persistent
kindness in succoring a woman of whose favors he had once been proud,
and in whose house he was hidden when in peril of his life.
This woman, celebrated under the Directory for her liaison with one of
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Sophist by Plato: have an element of falsehood as well as of truth?
THEAETETUS: Certainly.
STRANGER: Do you perceive, then, that false opinion and speech have been
discovered sooner than we expected?--For just now we seemed to be
undertaking a task which would never be accomplished.
THEAETETUS: I perceive.
STRANGER: Then let us not be discouraged about the future; but now having
made this discovery, let us go back to our previous classification.
THEAETETUS: What classification?
STRANGER: We divided image-making into two sorts; the one likeness-making,
the other imaginative or phantastic.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Fables by Robert Louis Stevenson: priest sat at the end of the board and was silent, so that the lads
were filled with reverence; and the maid served them smiling with
downcast eyes, so that their hearts were enlarged.
Before it was day, the elder son arose, and he found the maid at
her weaving, for she was a diligent girl. "Maid," quoth he, "I
would fain marry you."
"You must speak with my father," said she, and she looked upon the
ground smiling, and became like the rose.
"Her heart is with me," said the elder son, and he went down to the
lake and sang.
A little after came the younger son. "Maid," quoth he, "if our
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