| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Euthyphro by Plato: act is unjust, and hateful to the gods.
EUTHYPHRO: Yes indeed, Socrates; at least if they will listen to me.
SOCRATES: But they will be sure to listen if they find that you are a good
speaker. There was a notion that came into my mind while you were
speaking; I said to myself: 'Well, and what if Euthyphro does prove to me
that all the gods regarded the death of the serf as unjust, how do I know
anything more of the nature of piety and impiety? for granting that this
action may be hateful to the gods, still piety and impiety are not
adequately defined by these distinctions, for that which is hateful to the
gods has been shown to be also pleasing and dear to them.' And therefore,
Euthyphro, I do not ask you to prove this; I will suppose, if you like,
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Bunner Sisters by Edith Wharton: They were kind to her in her sickness--and now she wants a priest."
Ann Eliza faced Miss Mellins with unflinching eyes.
"My aunt Dugan'll know. I'll run right round to her the
minute I get my papers off," the dress-maker promised; and Ann
Eliza thanked her.
An hour or two later the priest appeared. Ann Eliza, who was
watching, saw him coming down the steps to the shop-door and went
to meet him. His expression was kind, but she shrank from
his peculiar dress, and from his pale face with its bluish chin and
enigmatic smile. Ann Eliza remained in the shop. Miss Mellins's
girl had mixed the buttons again and she set herself to sort them.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Soul of the Far East by Percival Lowell: we say the thing is impossible. But is it? Only under the relative
conditions of his mass and the earth's. If the world he happens to
inhabit were not its present size, but the size of one of the tinier
asteroids, no such disastrous results would follow a chance misstep.
He could there walk off precipices when too closely pursued by bears
--if I remember rightly the usual childish cause of the same--
with perfect impunity. The bear could do likewise, unfortunately.
We should have arrived at our conclusion even quicker had we
decreased the size both of the man and his world. He would not then
have had to tumble actually so far, and would therefore have arrived
yet more gently at the foot. This turns out, then, to be a mere
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