| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Gettysburg Address by Abraham Lincoln: We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting place
for those who here gave their lives that this nation might live.
It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate. . .we cannot consecrate. . .
we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead,
who struggled here have consecrated it, far above our poor power
to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember,
what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.
It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished
work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced.
It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Philebus by Plato: divine tyrant is a very tolerable governor of the universe. This is the
doctrine of Thrasymachus adapted to the public opinion of modern times.
There is yet a third view which combines the two:--freedom is obedience to
the law, and the greatest order is also the greatest freedom; 'Act so that
thy action may be the law of every intelligent being.' This view is noble
and elevating; but it seems to err, like other transcendental principles of
ethics, in being too abstract. For there is the same difficulty in
connecting the idea of duty with particular duties as in bridging the gulf
between phainomena and onta; and when, as in the system of Kant, this
universal idea or law is held to be independent of space and time, such a
mataion eidos becomes almost unmeaning.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Moon-Face and Other Stories by Jack London: "But what should she know about bucking?" Lute demanded. "She was never known
to buck--never."
He shrugged his shoulders. "Some forgotten instinct, perhaps, long-lapsed and
come to life again."
The girl rose to her feet determinedly. "I'm going to find out," she said.
They went back to the horses, where they subjected Dolly to a rigid
examination that disclosed nothing. Hoofs, legs, bit, mouth, body--everything
was as it should be. The saddle and saddle-cloth were innocent of bur or
sticker; the back was smooth and unbroken. They searched for sign of
snake-bite and sting of fly or insect, but found nothing.
"Whatever it was, it was subjective, that much is certain," Chris said.
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