| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Lesser Hippias by Plato: as they are false, do you mean that they have or have not the power of
uttering their falsehoods if they like?
HIPPIAS: I mean to say that they have the power.
SOCRATES: In a word, then, the false are they who are wise and have the
power to speak falsely?
HIPPIAS: Yes.
SOCRATES: Then a man who has not the power of speaking falsely and is
ignorant cannot be false?
HIPPIAS: You are right.
SOCRATES: And every man has power who does that which he wishes at the
time when he wishes. I am not speaking of any special case in which he is
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Moon-Face and Other Stories by Jack London: under him in a second buck.
Lute looked on, astounded at the unprecedented conduct of her mare, and
admiring her lover's horsemanship. He was quite cool, and was himself
evidently enjoying the performance. Again and again, half a dozen times, Dolly
arched herself into the air and struck, stiffly bunched. Then she threw her
head straight up and rose on her hind legs, pivoting about and striking with
her fore feet. Lute whirled into safety the horse she was riding, and as she
did so caught a glimpse of Dolly's eyes, with the look in them of blind brute
madness, bulging until it seemed they must burst from her head. The faint pink
in the white of the eyes was gone, replaced by a white that was like dull
marble and that yet flashed as from some inner fire.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Cousin Betty by Honore de Balzac: repeat it, and you may believe me, I have a right to--to make love to
you, for---- But no; I love you well enough to hold my tongue."
"You may speak, monsieur. In a few days I shall be eight-and-forty; I
am no prude; I can hear whatever you can say."
"Then will you give me your word of honor as an honest woman--for you
are, alas for me! an honest woman--never to mention my name or to say
that it was I who betrayed the secret?"
"If that is the condition on which you speak, I will swear never to
tell any one from whom I heard the horrors you propose to tell me, not
even my husband."
"I should think not indeed, for only you and he are concerned."
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