| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Laches by Plato: still needed who will decide between them. Had they agreed, no arbiter
would have been required. But as Laches has voted one way and Nicias
another, I should like to hear with which of our two friends you agree.
SOCRATES: What, Lysimachus, are you going to accept the opinion of the
majority?
LYSIMACHUS: Why, yes, Socrates; what else am I to do?
SOCRATES: And would you do so too, Melesias? If you were deliberating
about the gymnastic training of your son, would you follow the advice of
the majority of us, or the opinion of the one who had been trained and
exercised under a skilful master?
MELESIAS: The latter, Socrates; as would surely be reasonable.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Tono Bungay by H. G. Wells: on the crest, and there you are!"
I was so convinced of the triviality of this amusement that to
find at last that he had taken it in the most disastrous earnest
overwhelmed me.
He took me for a long walk to break it to me, over the hills
towards Yare and across the great gorse commons by Hazelbrow.
"There are ups and downs in life, George," he said--halfway
across that great open space, and paused against the sky...."I
left out one factor in the Union Pacific analysis."
"DID you?" I said, struck by the sudden chance in his voice.
"But you don't mean?"
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Ball at Sceaux by Honore de Balzac: that bore the hall-mark of wit was certain to please him; but he
nevertheless replied with one of those royal pleasantries whose
sweetness is more formidable than the anger of a rebuke. One of the
King's most intimate advisers took an opportunity of going up to the
fortune-seeking Vendeen, and made him understand by a keen and polite
hint that the time had not yet come for settling accounts with the
sovereign; that there were bills of much longer standing than his on
the books, and there, no doubt, they would remain, as part of the
history of the Revolution. The Count prudently withdrew from the
venerable group, which formed a respectful semi-circle before the
august family; then, having extricated his sword, not without some
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