| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Eve and David by Honore de Balzac: slowly climbing the hillside, and, all unknown to the postilion, the
occupants, and the servant, he managed to slip in among the luggage,
crouching in between two trunks lest he should be shaken off by the
jolting of the carriage--and so he slept.
He awoke with the sun shining into his eyes, and the sound of voices
in his ears. The carriage had come to a standstill. Looking about him,
he knew that he was at Mansle, the little town where he had waited for
Mme. de Bargeton eighteen months before, when his heart was full of
hope and love and joy. A group of post-boys eyed him curiously and
suspiciously, covered with dust as he was, wedged in among the
luggage. Lucien jumped down, but before he could speak two travelers
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Protagoras by Plato: have no knowledge, and they are more confident after they have learned than
before.
And have you not seen persons utterly ignorant, I said, of these things,
and yet confident about them?
Yes, he said, I have seen such persons far too confident.
And are not these confident persons also courageous?
In that case, he replied, courage would be a base thing, for the men of
whom we are speaking are surely madmen.
Then who are the courageous? Are they not the confident?
Yes, he said; to that statement I adhere.
And those, I said, who are thus confident without knowledge are really not
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Travels of Sir John Mandeville by Sir John Mandeville: Sidon; of the which city, Dido was lady, that was Aeneas' wife,
after the destruction of Troy, and that founded the city of
Carthage in Africa, and now is clept Sidonsayete. And in the city
of Tyre, reigned Agenor, the father of Dido. And sixteen mile from
Sidon is Beirout. And from Beirout to Sardenare is three journeys
and from Sardenare is five mile to Damascus.
And whoso will go long time on the sea, and come nearer to
Jerusalem, he shall go from Cyprus by sea to Port Jaffa. For that
is the next haven to Jerusalem; for from that haven is not but one
day journey and a half to Jerusalem. And the town is called Jaffa;
for one of the sons of Noah that hight Japhet founded it, and now
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