| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Three Taverns by Edwin Arlington Robinson: There is a dawning, though there be no sun;
Wherefore, with nothing but himself in sight,
Unsighted, he sails on.
At last there is a lifting of the cloud
Between the flood before him and the sky;
And then -- though he may curse the Power aloud
That has no power to die --
He steers himself away from what is haunted
By the old ghost of what has been before, --
Abandoning, as always, and undaunted,
One fog-walled island more.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Euthyphro by Plato: made his own inventions to move, I move those of other people as well. And
the beauty of it is, that I would rather not. For I would give the wisdom
of Daedalus, and the wealth of Tantalus, to be able to detain them and keep
them fixed. But enough of this. As I perceive that you are lazy, I will
myself endeavour to show you how you might instruct me in the nature of
piety; and I hope that you will not grudge your labour. Tell me, then--Is
not that which is pious necessarily just?
EUTHYPHRO: Yes.
SOCRATES: And is, then, all which is just pious? or, is that which is
pious all just, but that which is just, only in part and not all, pious?
EUTHYPHRO: I do not understand you, Socrates.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift: in London, that a young healthy child well nursed, is, at a year
old, a most delicious nourishing and wholesome food, whether
stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled; and I make no doubt that it
will equally serve in a fricasie, or a ragoust.
I do therefore humbly offer it to publick consideration, that of
the hundred and twenty thousand children, already computed,
twenty thousand may be reserved for breed, whereof only one
fourth part to be males; which is more than we allow to sheep,
black cattle, or swine, and my reason is, that these children are
seldom the fruits of marriage, a circumstance not much regarded
by our savages, therefore, one male will be sufficient to serve
A Modest Proposal |
