| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Timaeus by Plato: To the soul he added a body formed out of the four elements. The general
meaning of these words is that God imparted determinations of thought, or,
as we might say, gave law and variety to the material universe. The
elements are moving in a disorderly manner before the work of creation
begins; and there is an eternal pattern of the world, which, like the 'idea
of good,' is not the Creator himself, but not separable from him. The
pattern too, though eternal, is a creation, a world of thought prior to the
world of sense, which may be compared to the wisdom of God in the book of
Ecclesiasticus, or to the 'God in the form of a globe' of the old Eleatic
philosophers. The visible, which already exists, is fashioned in the
likeness of this eternal pattern. On the other hand, there is no truth of
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Case of the Golden Bullet by Grace Isabel Colbron and Augusta Groner: "Never mind that, my dear child, but just answer the questions I
have to ask, and answer truthfully, or it might occur to me to let
your George know that he is not the first man you have loved."
"What do you know?" she breathed in alarm.
The peddler laughed. "Oho, then he's jealous! All the better for
me - the Councillor was jealous too, wasn't he?" Nanette looked at
him in horror.
"The truth, therefore, you must tell me the truth, and get the
others away, so I can speak to you alone. You must do this - or
else I'll tell George about the handsome carpenter in Church street,
or about Franz Schmid, or - "
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Perfect Wagnerite: A Commentary on the Niblung's Ring by George Bernard Shaw: his temper; fights; and is forthwith slain, to his own great
astonishment.
In such conflicts one learns to interpret the messages of Nature
a little. When Siegfried, stung by the dragon's vitriolic blood,
pops his finger into his mouth and tastes it, he understands what
the bird is saying to him, and, instructed by it concerning the
treasures within his reach, goes into the cave to secure the
gold, the ring and the wishing cap. Then Mimmy returns, and is
confronted by Alberic. The two quarrel furiously over the sharing
of the booty they have not yet secured, until Siegfried comes
from the cave with the ring and the helmet, not much impressed by
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