| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Lesser Hippias by Plato: being defective; and those which voluntarily act ill are to be desired as
being good?
HIPPIAS: I agree.
SOCRATES: And what would you say of instruments;--which are the better
sort of instruments to have to do with?--those with which a man acts ill
voluntarily or involuntarily? For example, had a man better have a rudder
with which he will steer ill, voluntarily or involuntarily?
HIPPIAS: He had better have a rudder with which he will steer ill
voluntarily.
SOCRATES: And does not the same hold of the bow and the lyre, the flute
and all other things?
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Firm of Nucingen by Honore de Balzac: cook, no kitchen, an old manservant to wait upon him, and no pretence
of permanence. In her opinion, any other sort of establishment is bad
form. Godefroid de Beaudenord, faithful to this programme, lodged on
an entresol on the Quai Malaquais; he had, however, been obliged to
have this much in common with married couples, he had put a bedstead
in his room, though for that matter it was so narrow that he seldom
slept in it. An Englishwoman might have visited his rooms and found
nothing 'improper' there. Finot, you have yet to learn the great law
of the 'Improper' that rules Britain. But, for the sake of the bond
between us--that bill for a thousand francs--I will just give you some
idea of it. I have been in England myself.--I will give him wit enough
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Travels with a Donkey in the Cevenne by Robert Louis Stevenson: with his tongue, like a detected schoolboy. I drew a brief picture
of my state, and asked him what I was to do.
'I don't know,' he said; 'I will not cross the door.'
Here was the Beast of Gevaudan, and no mistake.
'Sir,' said I, with my most commanding manners, 'you are a coward.'
And with that I turned my back upon the family party, who hastened
to retire within their fortifications; and the famous door was
closed again, but not till I had overheard the sound of laughter.
FILIA BARBARA PATER BARBARIOR. Let me say it in the plural: the
Beasts of Gevaudan.
The lanterns had somewhat dazzled me, and I ploughed distressfully
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