| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Phaedo by Plato: or the playful smile with which he 'talks like a book' about greater and
less; or the allusion to the possibility of finding another teacher among
barbarous races (compare Polit.); or the mysterious reference to another
science (mathematics?) of generation and destruction for which he is vainly
feeling. There is no change in him; only now he is invested with a sort of
sacred character, as the prophet or priest of Apollo the God of the
festival, in whose honour he first of all composes a hymn, and then like
the swan pours forth his dying lay. Perhaps the extreme elevation of
Socrates above his own situation, and the ordinary interests of life
(compare his jeu d'esprit about his burial, in which for a moment he puts
on the 'Silenus mask'), create in the mind of the reader an impression
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Pool of Blood in the Pastor's Study by Grace Isabel Colbron and Augusta Groner: that wall and fold your arms on your breast," said Muller firmly.
He took a revolver from his pocket and laid it beside him on the
turning-lathe. The young giant, cowed by the sight of the weapon,
obeyed the commands of this little man whom he could have easily
crushed with a single blow.
Dr. Orszay sank down on the chair beside the door. Muller, now
completely master of the situation, turned to the insane man who
stood looking at him in a surprise which was mingled with admiration.
"And now, my dear Cardillac, you must tell us of your great deeds
here," said the detective in a friendly tone.
The unfortunate man bent over him with shining eyes and whispered:
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from An Inland Voyage by Robert Louis Stevenson: than the greater part of mountains, and yet a living thing, liable
to sicknesses and death, like you and me: is not that in itself a
speaking lesson in history? But acres on acres full of such
patriarchs contiguously rooted, their green tops billowing in the
wind, their stalwart younglings pushing up about their knees: a
whole forest, healthy and beautiful, giving colour to the light,
giving perfume to the air: what is this but the most imposing
piece in nature's repertory? Heine wished to lie like Merlin under
the oaks of Broceliande. I should not be satisfied with one tree;
but if the wood grew together like a banyan grove, I would be
buried under the tap-root of the whole; my parts should circulate
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