| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Theaetetus by Plato: absurdity that he should suppose another thing to be this, and this to be
another thing;--that, having knowledge present with him in his mind, he
should still know nothing and be ignorant of all things?--you might as well
argue that ignorance may make a man know, and blindness make him see, as
that knowledge can make him ignorant.
THEAETETUS: Perhaps, Socrates, we may have been wrong in making only forms
of knowledge our birds: whereas there ought to have been forms of
ignorance as well, flying about together in the mind, and then he who
sought to take one of them might sometimes catch a form of knowledge, and
sometimes a form of ignorance; and thus he would have a false opinion from
ignorance, but a true one from knowledge, about the same thing.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from An Historical Mystery by Honore de Balzac: fancy favorable made them gay.
"Either way, dear Laurence, you create a Comte de Cinq-Cygne--"
"I believe," thought Michu, riding behind them, "that mademoiselle
will not long be unmarried. How gay my masters are! If my mistress
makes her choice I shall not leave; I must stay and see that wedding."
Just then a magpie flew suddenly before his face. Michu, superstitious
like all primitive beings, fancied he heard the muffled tones of a
death-knell. The day, however, began brightly enough for lovers, who
rarely see magpies when together in the woods. Michu, armed with his
plan, verified the spots; each gentleman had brought a pickaxe, and
the money was soon found. The part of the forest where it was buried
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The People That Time Forgot by Edgar Rice Burroughs: apparently giving them a wide berth they stopped again,
though they stood watching him, with high-held heads and
quivering nostrils. It was a beautiful sight. And then Nobs
turned in behind them and trotted slowly back toward me. He did
not bark, nor come rushing down upon them, and when he had come
closer to them, he proceeded at a walk. The splendid creatures
seemed more curious than fearful, making no effort to escape
until Nobs was quite close to them; then they trotted slowly
away, but at right angles.
And now the fun and trouble commenced. Nobs, of course,
attempted to turn them, and he seemed to have selected the
 The People That Time Forgot |