The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Eryxias by Platonic Imitator: ERASISTRATUS: Indeed, Socrates, I have no notion about wealth beyond that
which men commonly have. I suppose that wealth is a quantity of money
(compare Arist. Pol.); and this, I imagine, would also be Critias'
definition.
SOCRATES: Then now we have to consider, What is money? Or else later on
we shall be found to differ about the question. For instance, the
Carthaginians use money of this sort. Something which is about the size of
a stater is tied up in a small piece of leather: what it is, no one knows
but the makers. A seal is next set upon the leather, which then passes
into circulation, and he who has the largest number of such pieces is
esteemed the richest and best off. And yet if any one among us had a mass
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Witch, et. al by Anton Chekhov: hospital, where she used to say she was not seventy, but
fifty-eight; she supposed that if the doctor knew her real age he
would not treat her, but would say it was time she died instead
of taking medicine. She usually went to the hospital early in the
morning, taking with her two or three of the little girls, and
came back in the evening, hungry and ill-tempered -- with drops
for herself and ointments for the little girls. Once she took
Nikolay, who swallowed drops for a fortnight afterwards, and said
he felt better.
Granny knew all the doctors and their assistants and the wise men
for twenty miles round, and not one of them she liked. At the
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Battle of the Books by Jonathan Swift: But time, and books, and State affairs,
Had spoiled his fashionable airs,
He now could praise, esteem, approve,
But understood not what was love.
His conduct might have made him styled
A father, and the nymph his child.
That innocent delight he took
To see the virgin mind her book,
Was but the master's secret joy
In school to hear the finest boy.
Her knowledge with her fancy grew,
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