| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from In the Cage by Henry James: expense of the gentry was vaguely wrong; the only thing that was
distinctly right was to be prosperous at any price. Wasn't it just
because they were up there aloft that they were lucrative? He
concluded at any rate by saying to his young friend: "If it's
improper for you to remain at Cocker's, then that falls in exactly
with the other reasons I've put before you for your removal."
"Improper?"--her smile became a prolonged boldness. "My dear boy,
there's no one like you!"
"I dare say," he laughed; "but that doesn't help the question."
"Well," she returned, "I can't give up my friends. I'm making even
more than Mrs. Jordan."
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from King Henry VI by William Shakespeare: As Scythian Tomyris by Cyrus' death.
Great is the rumor of this dreadful knight,
And his achievements of no less account:
Fain would mine eyes be witness with mine ears,
To give their censure of these rare reports.
[Enter Messenger and Talbot.]
MESSENGER.
Madam,
according as your ladyship desired,
By message craved, so is Lord Talbot come.
COUNTESS.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Menexenus by Plato: the Platonic writings he never attributes any passage found in the extant
dialogues to any one but Plato. And lastly, we may remark that one or two
great writings, such as the Parmenides and the Politicus, which are wholly
devoid of Aristotelian (1) credentials may be fairly attributed to Plato,
on the ground of (2) length, (3) excellence, and (4) accordance with the
general spirit of his writings. Indeed the greater part of the evidence
for the genuineness of ancient Greek authors may be summed up under two
heads only: (1) excellence; and (2) uniformity of tradition--a kind of
evidence, which though in many cases sufficient, is of inferior value.
Proceeding upon these principles we appear to arrive at the conclusion that
nineteen-twentieths of all the writings which have ever been ascribed to
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