| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Disputation of the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences by Dr. Martin Luther: 79. To say that the cross, emblazoned with the papal arms,
which is set up [by the preachers of indulgences], is of equal
worth with the Cross of Christ, is blasphemy.
80. The bishops, curates and theologians who allow such talk
to be spread among the people, will have an account to render.
81. This unbridled preaching of pardons makes it no easy
matter, even for learned men, to rescue the reverence due to
the pope from slander, or even from the shrewd questionings of
the laity.
82. To wit: -- "Why does not the pope empty purgatory, for the
sake of holy love and of the dire need of the souls that are
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Maitre Cornelius by Honore de Balzac: the moonlight, he had missed finding all the screws of that cursed
lock; he had no patience to look for them. With the "laisser-aller" of
a tired man, he trusted to his luck, which had so far served him well.
He did, however, make a sort of compact with himself to awake at
daybreak, but the events of the day and the agitations of the night
did not allow him to keep faith with himself. Happiness is forgetful.
Cornelius no longer seemed formidable to the young man when he threw
himself on the pallet where so many poor wretches had wakened to their
doom; and this light-hearted heedlessness proved his ruin. While the
king's silversmith rode back from Plessis, accompanied by the grand
provost and his redoubtable archers. The false Goulenoire was being
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Gorgias by Plato: suffer or die, but they have their reward; and even if they had no reward,
would be happier than the wicked. The world, represented by Polus, is
ready, when they are asked, to acknowledge that injustice is dishonourable,
and for their own sakes men are willing to punish the offender (compare
Republic). But they are not equally willing to acknowledge that injustice,
even if successful, is essentially evil, and has the nature of disease and
death. Especially when crimes are committed on the great scale--the crimes
of tyrants, ancient or modern--after a while, seeing that they cannot be
undone, and have become a part of history, mankind are disposed to forgive
them, not from any magnanimity or charity, but because their feelings are
blunted by time, and 'to forgive is convenient to them.' The tangle of
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