| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Polity of Athenians and Lacedaemonians by Xenophon: And indeed, one may well ask, for what reason should wealth be
regarded as a matter for serious pursuit[1] in a community where,
partly by a system of equal contributions to the necessaries of life,
and partly by the maintenance of a common standard of living, the
lawgiver placed so effectual a check upon the desire of riches for the
sake of luxury? What inducement, for instance, would there be to make
money, even for the sake of wearing apparel, in a state where personal
adornment is held to lie not in the costliness of the clothes they
wear, but in the healthy condition of the body to be clothed? Nor
again could there be much inducement to amass wealth, in order to be
able to expend it on the members of a common mess, where the
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Manon Lescaut by Abbe Prevost: have been a stranger to selfishness: I only wept from tenderness
and compassion for you. I am inconsolable at the thought of
having given you one instant's pain during my past life. I never
cease upbraiding myself with my former inconstancy, and wondering
at the sacrifices which love has induced you to make for a
miserable and unworthy wretch, who could not, with the last drop
of her blood, compensate for half the torments she has caused
you.'
"Her grief, the language, and the tone in which she expressed
herself, made such an impression, that I felt my heart ready to
break in me. `Take care,' said I to her, `take care, dear Manon;
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Works of Samuel Johnson by Samuel Johnson: that blasts a flourishing reputation, must be content
with a small dividend of additional fame, so small
as can afford very little consolation to balance the
guilt by which it is obtained.
I have hitherto avoided that dangerous and
empirical morality, which cures one vice by means of
another. But envy is so base and detestable, so vile
in its original, and so pernicious in its effects, that
the predominance of almost any other quality is to
be preferred. It is one of those lawless enemies of
society, against which poisoned arrows may honestly
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