| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Phaedrus by Plato: proceeded to divide the parts of the left side and did not desist until he
found in them an evil or left-handed love which he justly reviled; and the
other discourse leading us to the madness which lay on the right side,
found another love, also having the same name, but divine, which the
speaker held up before us and applauded and affirmed to be the author of
the greatest benefits.
PHAEDRUS: Most true.
SOCRATES: I am myself a great lover of these processes of division and
generalization; they help me to speak and to think. And if I find any man
who is able to see 'a One and Many' in nature, him I follow, and 'walk in
his footsteps as if he were a god.' And those who have this art, I have
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from New Arabian Nights by Robert Louis Stevenson: Northmour was abroad, or pay him as short a visit as I chose.
But when morning came, I thought the situation so diverting that I
forgot my shyness. Northmour was at my mercy; I arranged a good
practical jest, though I knew well that my neighbour was not the
man to jest with in security; and, chuckling beforehand over its
success, took my place among the elders at the edge of the wood,
whence I could command the door of the pavilion. The shutters were
all once more closed, which I remember thinking odd; and the house,
with its white walls and green venetians, looked spruce and
habitable in the morning light. Hour after hour passed, and still
no sign of Northmour. I knew him for a sluggard in the morning;
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Dreams & Dust by Don Marquis: We marked the risen moon
Walk swaying o'er the trembling seas
As one sways in a swoon;
The little stars, the lonely stars,
Stole through the hollow sky,
And every sucking eddy where
The waves lapped wharf or rotten stair
Moaned like some stricken thing hid there
And strangled with its own despair
As the shuddering tide crept by.
I loved her, and I hated her--
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