| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane: rang out filled with profane allusions to a general.
Men ran hither and thither, seeking with their
eyes roads of escape. With serene regularity, as
if controlled by a schedule, bullets buffed into
men.
The youth walked stolidly into the midst of
the mob, and with his flag in his hands took a
stand as if he expected an attempt to push him to
the ground. He unconsciously assumed the atti-
tude of the color bearer in the fight of the pre-
ceding day. He passed over his brow a hand
 The Red Badge of Courage |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Euthyphro by Plato: chief or principal one?
EUTHYPHRO: I have told you already, Socrates, that to learn all these
things accurately will be very tiresome. Let me simply say that piety or
holiness is learning how to please the gods in word and deed, by prayers
and sacrifices. Such piety is the salvation of families and states, just
as the impious, which is unpleasing to the gods, is their ruin and
destruction.
SOCRATES: I think that you could have answered in much fewer words the
chief question which I asked, Euthyphro, if you had chosen. But I see
plainly that you are not disposed to instruct me--clearly not: else why,
when we reached the point, did you turn aside? Had you only answered me I
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Death of the Lion by Henry James: doesn't at all console me. It does Mrs. Wimbush, however, for she
has consented to his remaining in bed so that he may be all right
to-morrow for the listening circle. Guy Walsingham's already on
the scene, and the Doctor for Paraday also arrived early. I
haven't yet seen the author of 'Obsessions,' but of course I've had
a moment by myself with the Doctor. I tried to get him to say that
our invalid must go straight home - I mean to-morrow or next day;
but he quite refuses to talk about the future. Absolute quiet and
warmth and the regular administration of an important remedy are
the points he mainly insists on. He returns this afternoon, and
I'm to go back to see the patient at one o'clock, when he next
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