| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Protagoras by Plato: a mutual interest in the justice and virtue of one another, and this is the
reason why every one is so ready to teach justice and the laws;--suppose, I
say, that there were the same readiness and liberality among us in teaching
one another flute-playing, do you imagine, Socrates, that the sons of good
flute-players would be more likely to be good than the sons of bad ones? I
think not. Would not their sons grow up to be distinguished or
undistinguished according to their own natural capacities as flute-players,
and the son of a good player would often turn out to be a bad one, and the
son of a bad player to be a good one, all flute-players would be good
enough in comparison of those who were ignorant and unacquainted with the
art of flute-playing? In like manner I would have you consider that he who
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells: nearer trees; it had failed to secure its footing. In one place
the woodmen had been at work on Saturday; trees, felled
and freshly trimmed, lay in a clearing, with heaps of sawdust
by the sawing-machine and its engine. Hard by was a tem-
porary hut, deserted. There was not a breath of wind this
morning, and everything was strangely still. Even the birds
were hushed, and as we hurried along I and the artilleryman
talked in whispers and looked now and again over our
shoulders. Once or twice we stopped to listen.
After a time we drew near the road, and as we did so we
heard the clatter of hoofs and saw through the tree stems
War of the Worlds |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Democracy In America, Volume 1 by Alexis de Toqueville: man. *m The Indian, in the dreary solitude of his woods,
cherishes the same ideas, the same opinions as the noble of the
Middle ages in his castle, and he only requires to become a
conqueror to complete the resemblance; thus, however strange it
may seem, it is in the forests of the New World, and not amongst
the Europeans who people its coasts, that the ancient prejudices
of Europe are still in existence.
[Footnote m: The following description occurs in an official
document: "Until a young man has been engaged with an enemy, and
has performed some acts of valor, he gains no consideration, but
is regarded nearly as a woman. In their great war-dances all the
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