| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Recruit by Honore de Balzac: him, and seemed to study him with curiosity; then she said in an
altered voice, and very softly,--
"I trust you."
"I am here to share your crime," replied the good man, simply.
She quivered. For the first time in that little town, her soul
sympathized with that of another. The old man now understood both the
hopes and the fears of the poor woman. The letter was from her son. He
had returned to France to share in Granville's expedition, and was
taken prisoner. The letter was written from his cell, but it told her
to hope. He did not doubt his means of escape, and he named to her
three days, on one of which he expected to be with her in disguise.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Hiero by Xenophon: 78, {oi barbaroi gar andras egountai monous} | {tous pleista
dunamenous phagein te kai piein}: "To the Barbarians 'tis the test
of manhood: there the great drinkers are the greatest men"
(Frere); id. "Knights," 179; "Clouds," 823; so Latin "vir." See
Holden ad loc.
[2] "Us lesser mortals."
To all which Hiero made answer: That the majority of men, Simonides,
should be deluded by the glamour of a despotism in no respect
astonishes me, since it is the very essence of the crowd, if I am not
mistaken, to rush wildly to conjecture touching the happiness or
wretchedness of people at first sight.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Concerning Christian Liberty by Martin Luther: is, to attribute truth to ourselves, but to God falsehood and
levity? In doing this, is not a man denying God and setting
himself up as an idol in his own heart? What then can works, done
in such a state of impiety, profit us, were they even angelic or
apostolic works? Rightly hath God shut up all, not in wrath nor
in lust, but in unbelief, in order that those who pretend that
they are fulfilling the law by works of purity and benevolence
(which are social and human virtues) may not presume that they
will therefore be saved, but, being included in the sin of
unbelief, may either seek mercy, or be justly condemned.
But when God sees that truth is ascribed to Him, and that in the
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