| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Laches by Plato: for it is not noble, but courage is noble?
LACHES: You are right.
SOCRATES: Then, according to you, only the wise endurance is courage?
LACHES: True.
SOCRATES: But as to the epithet 'wise,'--wise in what? In all things
small as well as great? For example, if a man shows the quality of
endurance in spending his money wisely, knowing that by spending he will
acquire more in the end, do you call him courageous?
LACHES: Assuredly not.
SOCRATES: Or, for example, if a man is a physician, and his son, or some
patient of his, has inflammation of the lungs, and begs that he may be
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Master of the World by Jules Verne: Alleghanies. As we were already more than three thousand feet above
sea level, the fatigue of the ascent could not be great. A few hours
should suffice to bring us to the crest of the crater. Of course,
difficulties might present themselves, precipices to scale, clefts
and breaks in the ridge might necessitate painful and even dangerous
detours. This was the unknown, the spur to our attempt. As I said,
our guides knew no more than we upon this point. What made me
anxious, was, of course, the common report that the Great Eyrie was
wholly inaccessible. But this remained unproven And then there was
the new chance that a fallen block had left a breach in the rocky
wall.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Madame Firmiani by Honore de Balzac: Arc, also the woman unknown, the Soul within that form, the soul of
Eve, the knowledge of the treasures of good and the riches of evil,
error and resignation, crime and devotion, the Donna Julia and the
Haidee of Lord Byron.
The former guardsman stayed, with apparent impertinence, after the
other guests had left the salons; and Madame Firmiani found him
sitting quietly before her in an armchair, evidently determined to
remain, with the pertinacity of a fly which we are forced to kill to
get rid of it. The hands of the clock marked two in the morning.
"Madame," said the old gentlemen, as Madame Firmiani rose, hoping to
make him understand that it was her good pleasure he should go,
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