| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Don Quixote by Miquel de Cervantes: as the writing was hers. I opened it with fear and trepidation,
persuaded that it must be something serious that had impelled her to
write to me when at a distance, as she seldom did so when I was
near. Before reading it I asked the man who it was that had given it
to him, and how long he had been upon the road; he told me that as
he happened to be passing through one of the streets of the city at
the hour of noon, a very beautiful lady called to him from a window,
and with tears in her eyes said to him hurriedly, 'Brother, if you
are, as you seem to be, a Christian, for the love of God I entreat you
to have this letter despatched without a moment's delay to the place
and person named in the address, all which is well known, and by
Don Quixote |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Madame Firmiani by Honore de Balzac: Madame Firmiani, like other noble and dignified women who make their
hearts a sanctuary and disdain the world, was liable, therefore, to be
totally misjudged by Monsieur de Bourbonne, an old country magnate,
who had reason to think a great deal about her during the winter of
this year. He belonged to the class of provincial Planters, men living
on their estates, accustomed to keep close accounts of everything and
to bargain with the peasantry. Thus employed, a man becomes sagacious
in spite of himself, just as soldiers in the long run acquire courage
from routine. The old gentleman, who had come to Paris from Touraine
to satisfy his curiosity about Madame Firmiani, and found it not at
all assuaged by the Parisian gossip which he heard, was a man of honor
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Ion by Plato: admit that there are differences of arts?
ION: Yes.
SOCRATES: You would argue, as I should, that when one art is of one kind
of knowledge and another of another, they are different?
ION: Yes.
SOCRATES: Yes, surely; for if the subject of knowledge were the same,
there would be no meaning in saying that the arts were different,--if they
both gave the same knowledge. For example, I know that here are five
fingers, and you know the same. And if I were to ask whether I and you
became acquainted with this fact by the help of the same art of arithmetic,
you would acknowledge that we did?
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