| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Wife, et al by Anton Chekhov: it on a hook, and when Ivan Ivanitch and I went into his little
study, two barefooted little girls were sitting on the floor
looking at a picture-book; when they saw us they jumped up and
ran away, and a tall, thin old woman in specta cles came in at
once, bowed gravely to me, and picking up a pillow from the sofa
and a picture-book from the floor, went away. From the adjoining
rooms we heard incessant whispering and the patter of bare feet.
"I am expecting the doctor to dinner," said Ivan Ivanitch. "He
promised to come from the relief centre. Yes. He dines with me
every Wednesday, God bless him." He craned towards me and kissed
me on the neck. "You have come, my dear fellow, so you are not
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Prince Otto by Robert Louis Stevenson: 'What will not do?' demanded the Prince, with a sickening stab of
pain.
'None of it,' answered Gotthold. 'You are unfitted for a life of
action; you lack the stamina, the habit, the restraint, the
patience. Your wife is greatly better, vastly better; and though
she is in bad hands, displays a very different aptitude. She is a
woman of affairs; you are - dear boy, you are yourself. I bid you
back to your amusements; like a smiling dominie, I give you holidays
for life. Yes,' he continued, 'there is a day appointed for all
when they shall turn again upon their own philosophy. I had grown
to disbelieve impartially in all; and if in the atlas of the
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Crito by Plato: what I want to consider with your help, Crito:--whether, under my present
circumstances, the argument appears to be in any way different or not; and
is to be allowed by me or disallowed. That argument, which, as I believe,
is maintained by many persons of authority, was to the effect, as I was
saying, that the opinions of some men are to be regarded, and of other men
not to be regarded. Now you, Crito, are not going to die to-morrow--at
least, there is no human probability of this, and therefore you are
disinterested and not liable to be deceived by the circumstances in which
you are placed. Tell me then, whether I am right in saying that some
opinions, and the opinions of some men only, are to be valued, and that
other opinions, and the opinions of other men, are not to be valued. I ask
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