| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Meno by Plato: should have been if we indulged in the idle fancy that there was no knowing
and no use in seeking to know what we do not know;--that is a theme upon
which I am ready to fight, in word and deed, to the utmost of my power.
MENO: There again, Socrates, your words seem to me excellent.
SOCRATES: Then, as we are agreed that a man should enquire about that
which he does not know, shall you and I make an effort to enquire together
into the nature of virtue?
MENO: By all means, Socrates. And yet I would much rather return to my
original question, Whether in seeking to acquire virtue we should regard it
as a thing to be taught, or as a gift of nature, or as coming to men in
some other way?
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Philosophy 4 by Owen Wister: bulging down from his gray slouch hat to his collar, how meritorious he
was compared with Bertie and Billy--with all Berties and Billies. He
may have been. Who shall say? But I will say at once that chewing the
cud of one's own virtue gives a sour stomach.
Bertie's and Billy's parents owned town and country houses in New York.
The parents of Oscar had come over in the steerage. Money filled the
pockets of Bertie and Billy; therefore were their heads empty of money
and full of less cramping thoughts. Oscar had fallen upon the reverse
of this fate. Calculation was his second nature. He had given his
education to himself; he had for its sake toiled, traded, outwitted, and
saved. He had sent himself to college, where most of the hours not
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Arizona Nights by Stewart Edward White: horse facing the cattle, watching lazily the clouds of dust and
the shifting beasts, but ready at any instant to turn back the
restless or independent individuals that might break for liberty.
Out of the haze came Homer, the round-up captain, on an easy
lope. As he passed successively the sentries he delivered to
each a low command, but without slacking pace. Some of those
spoken to wheeled their horses and rode away. The others settled
themselves in their saddles and began to roll cigarettes.
"Change horses; get something to eat," said he to me; so I swung
after the file traveling at a canter over the low swells beyond
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