| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Symposium by Plato: of both. But the offspring of the heavenly Aphrodite is derived from a
mother in whose birth the female has no part,--she is from the male only;
this is that love which is of youths, and the goddess being older, there is
nothing of wantonness in her. Those who are inspired by this love turn to
the male, and delight in him who is the more valiant and intelligent
nature; any one may recognise the pure enthusiasts in the very character of
their attachments. For they love not boys, but intelligent beings whose
reason is beginning to be developed, much about the time at which their
beards begin to grow. And in choosing young men to be their companions,
they mean to be faithful to them, and pass their whole life in company with
them, not to take them in their inexperience, and deceive them, and play
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Lay Morals by Robert Louis Stevenson: so many of his superiors and equals, and held unwearyingly
open before so idle, so desultory, and so dissolute a being
as himself. There sat a youth beside him on the college
benches, who had only one shirt to his back, and, at
intervals sufficiently far apart, must stay at home to have
it washed. It was my friend's principle to stay away as
often as he dared; for I fear he was no friend to learning.
But there was something that came home to him sharply, in
this fellow who had to give over study till his shirt was
washed, and the scores of others who had never an opportunity
at all. IF ONE OF THESE COULD TAKE HIS PLACE, he thought;
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Letters from England by Elizabeth Davis Bancroft: saying that she wished us to come and meet some agreeables at her
house. . . . There I met Sir William and Lady Molesworth, Sir
Benjamin Hall, etc., and had a long talk with "Eothen," who is a
quiet, unobtrusive person in manner, though his book is quite an
effervescence. . . . On Wednesday we dined with Mr. Harcourt, and
met there Lord Brougham, who did the talking chiefly, Lord and Lady
Mahon, Mr. Labouchere, etc. It was a most agreeable party, and we
were very glad to meet Lord Brougham, whom we had not before seen.
Lord Brougham is entertaining, and very much listened to. Indeed,
the English habit seems to be to suffer a few people to do up a
great part of the talking, such as Macaulay, Brougham, and Sydney
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