| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Works of Samuel Johnson by Samuel Johnson: happiness or wisdom; but it is likely, that whatever
now hinders us from doing that which our reason
and conscience declare necessary to be done, will
equally obstruct us in times to come. It is easy for
the imagination, operating on things not yet existing,
to please itself with scenes of unmingled felicity,
or plan out courses of uniform virtue; but good
and evil are in real life inseparably united; habits
grow stronger by indulgence; and reason loses her
dignity, in proportion as she has oftener yielded to
temptation: "he that cannot live well to-day,"
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from A Voyage to Abyssinia by Father Lobo: viceroy of Tigre received the commands of the Emperor to search for
the bones of Don Christopher de Gama. On this occasion it may not
be thought impertinent to give some account of the life and death of
this brave and holy Portuguese, who, after having been successful in
many battles, fell at last into the hands of the Moors, and
completed that illustrious life by a glorious martyrdom.
Chapter V
The adventures of the Portuguese, and the actions of Don Christopher
de Gama in Aethiopia.
About the beginning of the sixteenth century arose a Moor near the
Cape of Gardafui, who, by the assistance of the forces sent him from
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Tanach: Zephaniah 3: 1 Woe to her that is filthy and polluted, to the oppressing city!
Zephaniah 3: 2 She hearkened not the voice, she received not correction; she trusted not in the LORD, she drew not near to her God.
Zephaniah 3: 3 Her princes in the midst of her are roaring lions; her judges are wolves of the desert, they leave not a bone for the morrow.
Zephaniah 3: 4 Her prophets are wanton and treacherous persons; her priests have profaned that which is holy, they have done violence to the law.
Zephaniah 3: 5 The LORD who is righteous is in the midst of her, He will not do unrighteousness; every morning doth He bring His right to light, it faileth not; but the unrighteous knoweth no shame.
Zephaniah 3: 6 I have cut off nations, their corners are desolate; I have made their streets waste, so that none passeth by; their cities are destroyed, so that there is no man, so that there is no inhabitant.
Zephaniah 3: 7 I said: 'Surely thou wilt fear Me, thou wilt receive correction; so her dwelling shall not be cut off, despite all that I have visited upon her'; but they betimes corrupted all their doings.
Zephaniah 3: 8 Therefore wait ye for Me, saith the LORD, until the day that I rise up to the prey; for My determination is to gather the nations, that I may assemble the kingdoms, to pour upon them  The Tanach |