| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Euthydemus by Plato: CRITO: Certainly they are, in my judgment.
SOCRATES: Well, and do you not see that in each of these arts the many are
ridiculous performers?
CRITO: Yes, indeed, that is very true.
SOCRATES: And will you on this account shun all these pursuits yourself
and refuse to allow them to your son?
CRITO: That would not be reasonable, Socrates.
SOCRATES: Do you then be reasonable, Crito, and do not mind whether the
teachers of philosophy are good or bad, but think only of philosophy
herself. Try and examine her well and truly, and if she be evil seek to
turn away all men from her, and not your sons only; but if she be what I
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Firm of Nucingen by Honore de Balzac: nothing nowadays but pass penal laws and levy taxes. Will you have the
sum of it all!--There is no religion left in the State!"
"Oh, bravo, Blondet!" cried Bixiou, "thou hast set thy finger on the
weak spot. Meddlesome taxation has lost us more victories here in
France than the vexatious chances of war. I once spent seven years in
the hulks of a government department, chained with bourgeois to my
bench. There was a clerk in the office, a man with a head on his
shoulders; he had set his mind upon making a sweeping reform of the
whole fiscal system--ah, well, we took the conceit out of him nicely.
France might have been too prosperous, you know she might have amused
herself by conquering Europe again; we acted in the interests of the
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Black Dwarf by Walter Scott: rather than that!"
She hurried to the garden. Mr. Ratcliffe was true to his
appointment--the horses stood saddled at the garden-gate, and in
a few minutes they were advancing rapidly towards the hut of the
Solitary.
While the ground was favourable, the speed of their journey was
such as to prevent much communication; but when a steep ascent
compelled them to slacken their pace, a new cause of apprehension
occurred to Miss Vere's mind.
"Mr. Ratcliffe," she said, pulling up her horse's bridle, "let us
prosecute no farther a journey, which nothing but the extreme
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