| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Yates Pride by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman: he wanted her, why on earth didn't she take him?"
"Maybe they quarreled," ventured Mrs. Edward Lee, who was a mild,
sickly-looking woman and seldom expressed an opinion.
"Well, that might have been," agreed Abby, "although Eudora
always had the name of having a beautiful disposition."
"I have always found," said Mrs. Joseph Glynn, with an air of
wisdom, "that it is the beautiful dispositions which are the most
set the minute they get a start the wrong way. It is the
always-flying-out people who are the easiest to get on with in
the long run."
"Well," said Abby, "maybe that is so, but folks might get worn
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Euthydemus by Plato: no falsehood or false opinion or ignorance, there can be no such thing as
erroneous action, for a man cannot fail of acting as he is acting--that is
what you mean?
Yes, he replied.
And now, I said, I will ask my stupid question: If there is no such thing
as error in deed, word, or thought, then what, in the name of goodness, do
you come hither to teach? And were you not just now saying that you could
teach virtue best of all men, to any one who was willing to learn?
And are you such an old fool, Socrates, rejoined Dionysodorus, that you
bring up now what I said at first--and if I had said anything last year, I
suppose that you would bring that up too--but are non-plussed at the words
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from At the Sign of the Cat & Racket by Honore de Balzac: that it was very like a well. The old merchant opened the iron-lined
shutters, which were so familiar to him, and threw up the lower half
of the sash window. The icy air of the courtyard came in to cool the
hot atmosphere of the little room, full of the odor peculiar to
offices.
The merchant remained standing, his hand resting on the greasy arm of
a large cane chair lined with morocco, of which the original hue had
disappeared; he seemed to hesitate as to seating himself. He looked
with affection at the double desk, where his wife's seat, opposite his
own, was fitted into a little niche in the wall. He contemplated the
numbered boxes, the files, the implements, the cash box--objects all
|