| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Crito by Plato: care. Now, can there be a worse disgrace than this--that I should be
thought to value money more than the life of a friend? For the many will
not be persuaded that I wanted you to escape, and that you refused.
SOCRATES: But why, my dear Crito, should we care about the opinion of the
many? Good men, and they are the only persons who are worth considering,
will think of these things truly as they occurred.
CRITO: But you see, Socrates, that the opinion of the many must be
regarded, for what is now happening shows that they can do the greatest
evil to any one who has lost their good opinion.
SOCRATES: I only wish it were so, Crito; and that the many could do the
greatest evil; for then they would also be able to do the greatest good--
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Barnaby Rudge by Charles Dickens: 'How dull you think me! Shall I say his name?'
'No,' said Hugh, with a hasty glance towards Dennis.
'You have also heard from him, no doubt,' resumed the secretary,
after a moment's pause, 'that the rioters who have been taken (poor
fellows) are committed for trial, and that some very active
witnesses have had the temerity to appear against them. Among
others--' and here he clenched his teeth, as if he would suppress
by force some violent words that rose upon his tongue; and spoke
very slowly. 'Among others, a gentleman who saw the work going on
in Warwick Street; a Catholic gentleman; one Haredale.'
Hugh would have prevented his uttering the word, but it was out
Barnaby Rudge |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Madam How and Lady Why by Charles Kingsley: seen: the lion's whelp hath not trodden it, nor the fierce lion
passed by it. There He putteth forth His hand upon the rock; He
overturneth the mountain by the roots; He cutteth out rivers among
the rocks; and His eye seeth every precious thing"--while we, like
little ants, run up and down outside the earth, scratching, like
ants, a few feet down, and calling that a deep ravine; or peeping
a few feet down into the crater of a volcano, unable to guess what
precious things may lie below--below even the fire which blazes
and roars up through the thin crust of the earth. For of the
inside of this earth we know nothing whatsoever: we only know
that it is, on an average, several times as heavy as solid rock;
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