| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Statesman by Plato: YOUNG SOCRATES: Very good.
STRANGER: Rhetoric seems to be quickly distinguished from politics, being
a different species, yet ministering to it.
YOUNG SOCRATES: Yes.
STRANGER: But what would you think of another sort of power or science?
YOUNG SOCRATES: What science?
STRANGER: The science which has to do with military operations against our
enemies--is that to be regarded as a science or not?
YOUNG SOCRATES: How can generalship and military tactics be regarded as
other than a science?
STRANGER: And is the art which is able and knows how to advise when we are
Statesman |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The King of the Golden River by John Ruskin: of the Treasure Valley, behold, a river, like the Golden River, was
springing from a new cleft of the rocks above it and was flowing in
innumerable streams among the dry heaps of red sand.
And as Gluck gazed, fresh grass sprang beside the new streams,
and creeping plants grew and climbed among the moistening soil.
Young flowers opened suddenly along the riversides, as stars leap
out when twilight is deepening, and thickets of myrtle and tendrils
of vine cast lengthening shadows over the valley as they grew. And
thus the Treasure Valley became a garden again, and the inheritance
which had been lost by cruelty was regained by love.
And Gluck went and dwelt in the valley, and the poor were never
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Mansfield Park by Jane Austen: engagement to be mortified and unhappy, till some other
pretty girl could attract him into matrimony again,
and he might set forward on a second, and, it is to
be hoped, more prosperous trial of the state: if duped,
to be duped at least with good humour and good luck;
while she must withdraw with infinitely stronger feelings
to a retirement and reproach which could allow no second
spring of hope or character.
Where she could be placed became a subject of most
melancholy and momentous consultation. Mrs. Norris,
whose attachment seemed to augment with the demerits
Mansfield Park |
