| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Parmenides by Plato: of the Eleatic philosophy. But would Plato have been likely to place this
in the mouth of the great Parmenides himself, who appeared to him, in
Homeric language, to be 'venerable and awful,' and to have a 'glorious
depth of mind'? (Theaet.). It may be admitted that he has ascribed to an
Eleatic stranger in the Sophist opinions which went beyond the doctrines of
the Eleatics. But the Eleatic stranger expressly criticises the doctrines
in which he had been brought up; he admits that he is going to 'lay hands
on his father Parmenides.' Nothing of this kind is said of Zeno and
Parmenides. How then, without a word of explanation, could Plato assign to
them the refutation of their own tenets?
The conclusion at which we must arrive is that the Parmenides is not a
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from King Henry VI by William Shakespeare: DICK.
[Aside.] Ay, by my faith, the field is honourable; and
there was he born, under a hedge, for his father had never a
house but
the cage.
CADE.
Valiant I am.
SMITH.
[Aside.] A' must needs; for beggary is valiant.
CADE.
I am able to endure much.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Melmoth Reconciled by Honore de Balzac: compelled to resort to various shifts for obtaining money, for he
could not bring himself to renounce this delightful life. He loved the
woman too well to cross the freaks of the mistress. He was one of
those men who, through self-love or through weakness of character, can
refuse nothing to a woman; false shame overpowers them, and they
rather face ruin than make the admissions: "I cannot----" "My means
will not permit----" "I cannot afford----"
When, therefore, Castanier saw that if he meant to emerge from the
abyss of debt into which he had plunged, he must part with Aquilina
and live upon bread and water, he was so unable to do without her or
to change his habits of life, that daily he put off his plans of
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