| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Apology by Plato: that the Platonic defence is an exact or nearly exact reproduction of the
words of Socrates, partly because Plato would not have been guilty of the
impiety of altering them, and also because many points of the defence might
have been improved and strengthened, at all more conclusive. (See English
Translation.) What effect the death of Socrates produced on the mind of
Plato, we cannot certainly determine; nor can we say how he would or must
have written under the circumstances. We observe that the enmity of
Aristophanes to Socrates does not prevent Plato from introducing them
together in the Symposium engaged in friendly intercourse. Nor is there
any trace in the Dialogues of an attempt to make Anytus or Meletus
personally odious in the eyes of the Athenian public.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Dreams & Dust by Don Marquis: That's the throbbing of a heart!
God of terrors!--am I mad?--
Through my body, mine own soul,
Shrunken to an atom's size,
Voyages toward an unguessed goal!
THE MOTHER
THE mother by the gallows-tree,
The gallows-tree, the gallows-tree,
(While the twitching body mocked the sun)
Lifted to Heaven her broken heart
And called for sympathy.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Madame Firmiani by Honore de Balzac: receive you,--she only does that for women, ambassadors, dukes, and
persons of great distinction. She is very gracious, she possesses
charm; she converses well, and likes to talk on many topics. There are
many indications of a passionate nature about her; but she has,
evidently, so many adorers that she cannot have a favorite. If
suspicion rested on two or three of her intimates, we might say that
one or other of them was the "cavaliere servente"; but it does not.
The lady is a mystery. She is married, though none of us have seen her
husband. Monsieur Firmiani is altogether mythical; he is like that
third post-horse for which we pay though we never behold it. Madame
has the finest contralto voice in Europe, so say judges; but she has
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