| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Lone Star Ranger by Zane Grey: overcome with emotion. There were tears in his eyes. He sat
down on a bench, put his elbows on his knees and his hands to
his face. For once he had absolutely no concern for his fate.
This ignominy was the last straw.
Presently, however, he became aware of some kind of commotion
among these villagers. He heard whisperings, low, hoarse
voices, then the shuffle of rapid feet moving away. All at once
a violent hand jerked his gun from its holster. When Duane rose
a gaunt man, livid of face, shaking like a leaf, confronted him
with his own gun.
"Hands up, thar, you Buck Duane!" he roared, waving the gun.
 The Lone Star Ranger |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Alcibiades I by Plato: difficulty in them, and therefore they leave them, and consider which
course of action will be most expedient; for there is a difference between
justice and expediency. Many persons have done great wrong and profited by
their injustice; others have done rightly and come to no good.
SOCRATES: Well, but granting that the just and the expedient are ever so
much opposed, you surely do not imagine that you know what is expedient for
mankind, or why a thing is expedient?
ALCIBIADES: Why not, Socrates?--But I am not going to be asked again from
whom I learned, or when I made the discovery.
SOCRATES: What a way you have! When you make a mistake which might be
refuted by a previous argument, you insist on having a new and different
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Pellucidar by Edgar Rice Burroughs: cried, "and you shall not be harmed. We will feed you
and return you to the mainland. Then you shall go
free upon your promise never to bear arms against the
Emperor of Pellucidar again!"
I think it was the promise of food that interested
them most. They could scarce believe that we would
not kill them. But when I exhibited the prisoners we
already had taken, and showed them that they were
alive and unharmed, a great Sagoth in one of the boats
asked me what guarantee I could give that I would
keep my word.
 Pellucidar |