| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift: PART II. A VOYAGE TO BROBDINGNAG.
CHAPTER I.
[A great storm described; the long boat sent to fetch water; the
author goes with it to discover the country. He is left on
shore, is seized by one of the natives, and carried to a farmer's
house. His reception, with several accidents that happened there.
A description of the inhabitants.]
Having been condemned, by nature and fortune, to active and
restless life, in two months after my return, I again left my
native country, and took shipping in the Downs, on the 20th day
of June, 1702, in the Adventure, Captain John Nicholas, a Cornish
 Gulliver's Travels |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Dreams & Dust by Don Marquis: And musing, murmured, What if death
Were just the answer to it all?--
Suppose some dainty dagger quaffed
Her life in one deep eager draught?--
Suppose some amorous knife caressed
The lovely hollow of her breast?"--
She turned a mocking look to mine:
She read the thought within my eyne,
She held me with her look--and laughed!
Now who may tell what stirs, controls,
And shapes mad fancies into facts?
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Meno by Plato: justice is virtue? Ought I not to ask the question over again; for can any
one who does not know virtue know a part of virtue?
MENO: No; I do not say that he can.
SOCRATES: Do you remember how, in the example of figure, we rejected any
answer given in terms which were as yet unexplained or unadmitted?
MENO: Yes, Socrates; and we were quite right in doing so.
SOCRATES: But then, my friend, do not suppose that we can explain to any
one the nature of virtue as a whole through some unexplained portion of
virtue, or anything at all in that fashion; we should only have to ask over
again the old question, What is virtue? Am I not right?
MENO: I believe that you are.
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