| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Madame Firmiani by Honore de Balzac: carriages; such persons never quarrel."
Old man belonging to the genus Observer: "If you call on Madame
Firmiani, my good friend, you will find a beautiful woman sitting at
her ease by the corner of her fireplace. She will scarcely rise to
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.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Charmides by Plato: friend, is wanted, who will satisfactorily determine for us, whether there
is nothing which has an inherent property of relation to self, or some
things only and not others; and whether in this class of self-related
things, if there be such a class, that science which is called wisdom or
temperance is included. I altogether distrust my own power of determining
these matters: I am not certain whether there is such a science of science
at all; and even if there be, I should not acknowledge this to be wisdom or
temperance, until I can also see whether such a science would or would not
do us any good; for I have an impression that temperance is a benefit and a
good. And therefore, O son of Callaeschrus, as you maintain that
temperance or wisdom is a science of science, and also of the absence of
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Wheels of Chance by H. G. Wells: discovered he was standing as if the table was a counter, and sat
down forthwith. He drummed with his hand on the table. He felt
dreadfully hot and self-conscious.
"Breakfast is late," said Jessie, standing up.
"Isn't it?"
Conversation was slack. Jessie wanted to know the distance to
Ringwood. Then silence fell again.
Mr. Hoopdriver, very uncomfortable and studying an easy bearing,
looked again at the breakfast things and then idly lifted the
corner of the tablecloth on the ends of his fingers, and regarded
it. "Fifteen three," he thought, privately.
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