| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Alcibiades II by Platonic Imitator: who is ignorant of the best, having occasionally the whim that what is
worst is best?
ALCIBIADES: No.)
SOCRATES:--If, then, you went indoors, and seeing him, did not know him,
but thought that he was some one else, would you venture to slay him?
ALCIBIADES: Most decidedly not (it seems to me). (These words are omitted
in several MSS.)
SOCRATES: For you designed to kill, not the first who offered, but
Pericles himself?
ALCIBIADES: Certainly.
SOCRATES: And if you made many attempts, and each time failed to recognize
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Another Study of Woman by Honore de Balzac: lady-killer, or was indifferent to such successes.
"To give you an idea of his violence, I will tell you in a few words
what I once saw him do in a paroxysm of fury. We were dragging our
guns up a very narrow road, bordered by a somewhat high slope on one
side, and by thickets on the other. When we were half-way up we met
another regiment of artillery, its colonel marching at the head. This
colonel wanted to make the captain who was at the head of our foremost
battery back down again. The captain, of course, refused; but the
colonel of the other regiment signed to his foremost battery to
advance, and in spite of the care the driver took to keep among the
scrub, the wheel of the first gun struck our captain's right leg and
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Fables by Robert Louis Stevenson: embark in such a discussion when we shall all be in Davy Jones's
Locker in ten minutes."
"By parity of reasoning," returned the Captain gently, "it would
never be worth while to begin any inquiry of importance; the odds
are always overwhelming that we must die before we shall have
brought it to an end. You have not considered, Mr. Spoker, the
situation of man," said the Captain, smiling, and shaking his head.
"I am much more engaged in considering the position of the ship,"
said Mr. Spoker.
"Spoken like a good officer," replied the Captain, laying his hand
on the lieutenant's shoulder.
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