| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Second Inaugural Address by Abraham Lincoln: in detail, of a course to be pursued, seemed fitting and proper.
Now, at the expiration of four years, during which public declarations
have been constantly called forth on every point and phase of the great
contest which still absorbs the attention and engrosses the energies
of the nation, little that is new could be presented. The progress
of our arms, upon which all else chiefly depends, is as well known
to the public as to myself; and it is, I trust, reasonably satisfactory
and encouraging to all. With high hope for the future, no prediction
in regard to it is ventured.
On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago, all thoughts
were anxiously directed to an impending civil war. All dreaded it--
Second Inaugural Address |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Lysis by Plato: not in what he does not know; for in such matters he will be unprofitable
to them, and do them no good. And no one will love him, if he does them no
good; and he can only do them good by knowledge; and as he is still without
knowledge, he can have as yet no conceit of knowledge. In this manner
Socrates reads a lesson to Hippothales, the foolish lover of Lysis,
respecting the style of conversation which he should address to his
beloved.
After the return of Menexenus, Socrates, at the request of Lysis, asks him
a new question: 'What is friendship? You, Menexenus, who have a friend
already, can tell me, who am always longing to find one, what is the secret
of this great blessing.'
Lysis |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift: urine in her majesty's apartment (which he mentioned with
horror), might, at another time, raise an inundation by the same
means, to drown the whole palace; and the same strength which
enabled you to bring over the enemy's fleet, might serve, upon
the first discontent, to carry it back; that he had good reasons
to think you were a Big-endian in your heart; and, as treason
begins in the heart, before it appears in overt-acts, so he
accused you as a traitor on that account, and therefore insisted
you should be put to death.
"The treasurer was of the same opinion: he showed to what
straits his majesty's revenue was reduced, by the charge of
Gulliver's Travels |
