| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from On Revenues by Xenophon: cannot fail to exercise an attractive force on all. From the mariner
and the merchant upwards, all seek her, flocking they come; the
wealthy dealers in corn and wine[4] and oil, the owner of many cattle.
And not these only, but the man who depends upon his wits, whose skill
it is to do business and make gain out of money[5] and its employment.
And here another crowd, artificers of all sorts, artists and artisans,
professors of wisdom,[6] philosophers, and poets, with those who
exhibit and popularise their works.[7] And next a new train of
pleasure-seekers, eager to feast on everything sacred or secular,[8]
which may captivate and charm eye and ear. Or once again, where are
all those who seek to effect a rapid sale or purchase of a thousand
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Varieties of Religious Experience by William James: carry his essential vital purposes through against the adverse
pressure of the world by raising himself freely towards the
world's ordering and governing powers when the limits of his own
strength are reached." The whole book is little more than a
development of these words.
At this purely subjective rating, therefore, Religion must be
considered vindicated in a certain way from the attacks of her
critics. It would seem that she cannot be a mere anachronism and
survival, but must exert a permanent function, whether she be
with or without intellectual content, and whether, if she have
any, it be true or false.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Princess by Alfred Tennyson: You would-be quenchers of the light to be,
Barbarians, grosser than your native bears--
O would I had his sceptre for one hour!
You that have dared to break our bound, and gulled
Our servants, wronged and lied and thwarted us--
~I~ wed with thee! ~I~ bound by precontract
Your bride, our bondslave! not though all the gold
That veins the world were packed to make your crown,
And every spoken tongue should lord you. Sir,
Your falsehood and yourself are hateful to us:
I trample on your offers and on you:
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