| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Republic by Plato: talking of peasants keeping holiday, but of a State in which every man is
expected to do his own work. The happiness resides not in this or that
class, but in the State as a whole. I have another remark to make:--A
middle condition is best for artisans; they should have money enough to buy
tools, and not enough to be independent of business. And will not the same
condition be best for our citizens? If they are poor, they will be mean;
if rich, luxurious and lazy; and in neither case contented. 'But then how
will our poor city be able to go to war against an enemy who has money?'
There may be a difficulty in fighting against one enemy; against two there
will be none. In the first place, the contest will be carried on by
trained warriors against well-to-do citizens: and is not a regular athlete
The Republic |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Malbone: An Oldport Romance by Thomas Wentworth Higginson: all had that good-breeding which their race wears with such
ease, and can unhappily put off with the same.
The admiral and the fleet captain were soon turned over to
Hope, who spoke French as she did English, with quiet grace.
She found them agreeable companions, while Emilia drifted among
the elder midshipmen, who were dazzling in gold lace if not in
intellect. Kate fell to the share of a vehement little
surgeon, who danced her out of breath. Harry officiated as
interpreter between the governor of the State and a lively
young ensign, who yearned for the society of dignitaries. The
governor was quite aware that he himself could not speak
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Beast in the Jungle by Henry James: together, confessed, explained, overwhelmed; leaving him most of
all stupefied at the blindness he had cherished. The fate he had
been marked for he had met with a vengeance--he had emptied the cup
to the lees; he had been the man of his time, THE man, to whom
nothing on earth was to have happened. That was the rare stroke--
that was his visitation. So he saw it, as we say, in pale horror,
while the pieces fitted and fitted. So SHE had seen it while he
didn't, and so she served at this hour to drive the truth home. It
was the truth, vivid and monstrous, that all the while he had
waited the wait was itself his portion. This the companion of his
vigil had at a given moment made out, and she had then offered him
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