| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Black Beauty by Anna Sewell: and Ginger have been if you had only thought of number one? why,
roasted to death! No, Jim, no! that is a selfish, heathenish saying,
whoever uses it; and any man who thinks he has nothing to do
but take care of number one, why, it's a pity but what he had been drowned
like a puppy or a kitten, before he got his eyes open; that's what I think,"
said John, with a very decided jerk of his head.
James laughed at this; but there was a thickness in his voice when he said,
"You have been my best friend except my mother; I hope you won't forget me."
"No, lad, no!" said John, "and if ever I can do you a good turn
I hope you won't forget me."
The next day Joe came to the stables to learn all he could before James left.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte: near enough to speak, an unceremonious nod, accompanied by a
'Morning, Miss Grey,' or some such brief salutation, was usually
vouchsafed. Frequently, indeed, his loud laugh reached me from
afar; and oftener still I heard him swearing and blaspheming
against the footmen, groom, coachman, or some other hapless
dependant.
Mrs. Murray was a handsome, dashing lady of forty, who certainly
required neither rouge nor padding to add to her charms; and whose
chief enjoyments were, or seemed to be, in giving or frequenting
parties, and in dressing at the very top of the fashion. I did not
see her till eleven o'clock on the morning after my arrival; when
 Agnes Grey |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Symposium by Xenophon: poimen}.
And again, in another passage he says:
Knowing deep devices ({medea}) in his mind,[59]
which is as much as to say, "knowing wise counsels in his mind."
Ganymede, therefore, bears a name compounded of the two words, "joy"
and "counsel," and is honoured among the gods, not as one "whose
body," but "whose mind" "gives pleasure."
[59] Partly "Il." xxiv. 674, {pukina phresi mede' ekhontes}; and "Il."
xxiv. 424, {phila phresi medea eidos}. Cf. "Od." vi. 192; xviii.
67, 87; xxii. 476.
Furthermore (I appeal to you, Niceratus),[60] Homer makes Achilles
 The Symposium |