| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions by Edwin A. Abbot: With Women, we speak of "love", "duty", "right", "wrong", "pity",
"hope", and other irrational and emotional conceptions,
which have no existence, and the fiction of which has no object
except to control feminine exuberances; but among ourselves,
and in our books, we have an entirely different vocabulary
and I may almost say, idiom. "Love" then becomes "the anticipation
of benefits"; "duty" becomes "necessity" or "fitness"; and other words
are correspondingly transmuted. Moreover, among Women,
we use language implying the utmost deference for their Sex;
and they fully believe that the Chief Circle Himself is not more
devoutly adored by us than they are: but behind their backs they are
 Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from An International Episode by Henry James: She went in, and she found Bessie still writing her letter;
that is, Mrs. Westgate perceived she was sitting at the table with
the pen in her hand and not writing. "Lord Lambeth has been here,"
said the elder lady at last.
Then Bessie got up and showed her a pale, serious face. She bent this face
upon her sister for some time, confessing silently and a little pleading.
"I told him," she said at last, "that we could not go to Branches."
Mrs. Westgate displayed just a spark of irritation.
"He might have waited," she said with a smile, "till one had seen
the castle." Later, an hour afterward, she said, "Dear Bessie,
I wish you might have accepted him."
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians by Martin Luther: God," and "Ye worshipped God," be reconciled? I answer: By nature all men
know that there is a God, "because that which may be known of God is
manifest in them, for God hath showed it unto them. For the invisible things
of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen." (Romans 1:19, 20.)
Furthermore, the different religions to be found among all nations at all
times bear witness to the fact that all men have a certain intuitive
knowledge of God.
If all men know God how can Paul say that the Galatians did not know God
prior to the hearing of the Gospel? I answer: There is a twofold knowledge of
God, general and particular. All men have the general and instinctive
recognition that there is a God who created heaven and earth, who is just and
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