| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Phaedo by Plato: And is there any opposite to life?
There is, he said.
And what is that?
Death.
Then the soul, as has been acknowledged, will never receive the opposite of
what she brings.
Impossible, replied Cebes.
And now, he said, what did we just now call that principle which repels the
even?
The odd.
And that principle which repels the musical, or the just?
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Whirligigs by O. Henry: "when the rats make too much noise. But nearly every
night, when sister goes out, Molt-her Geehan stays a while
with me, and tells me funny stories. I'm not often
afraid, sir."
"This brave little gentleman," said Father Rogan, "is
a scholar of mine. Every day from half-past six to half-
past eight -- when sister comes for him -- he stops in
my study, and we find out what's in the inside of books.
He knows multiplication, division and fractions; and
he's troubling me to begin wid the chronicles of Ciaran
of Clonmaciioise, Corurac McCullenan and Cuan O'Loc-
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Letters of Two Brides by Honore de Balzac: displeased you, while entirely ignorant of the cause? The ideal double
life which seemed so fair was cut short. My heart turned to ice within
me as, hopeless of any other explanation, I concluded that you had
ceased to love me. With heavy heart, and yet not wholly without
comfort, I was falling back upon my old post as servant; then your
letter came and turned all to joy. Oh! might I but listen for ever to
such chiding!
Once a child, picking himself up from a tumble, turned to his mother
with the words "Forgive me." Hiding his own hurt, he sought pardon for
the pain he had caused her. Louise, I was that child, and such as I
was then, I am now. Here is the key to my character, which your slave
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