The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Copy-Cat & Other Stories by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman: two women are as well as I do. They keep the letter
of the Ten Commandments -- that is right. They
attend my church -- that is right. They scour the
outside of the platter until it is bright enough to
blind those people who don't understand them; but
inwardly they are petty, ravening wolves of greed and
ingratitude. Go and tell them; they don't know
themselves. Show them what they are. It is your
Christian duty."
"You don't mean for me to stop doing for them?"
"I certainly do mean just that -- for a while,
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Under the Red Robe by Stanley Weyman: 'To-day, I am thankful to say, I can take it cheerfully, if not
without regret; with a steadfast heart, if no light one.
Mademoiselle,' I continued earnestly, feeling none of the
triumph, none of the vanity, none of the elation I had foreseen,
but only simple joy in the joy I could give her, 'I thank God
that it IS still in my power to undo what I have done: that it
is still in my power to go back to him who sent me, and telling
him that I have changed my mind, and will bear my own burdens, to
pay the penalty.'
We were within a hundred paces of the top and the finger-post.
She cried out wildly that she did not understand. 'What is it
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Ion by Plato: dramatic interest consists entirely in the contrast between the irony of
Socrates and the transparent vanity and childlike enthusiasm of the
rhapsode Ion. The theme of the Dialogue may possibly have been suggested
by the passage of Xenophon's Memorabilia in which the rhapsodists are
described by Euthydemus as 'very precise about the exact words of Homer,
but very idiotic themselves.' (Compare Aristotle, Met.)
Ion the rhapsode has just come to Athens; he has been exhibiting in
Epidaurus at the festival of Asclepius, and is intending to exhibit at the
festival of the Panathenaea. Socrates admires and envies the rhapsode's
art; for he is always well dressed and in good company--in the company of
good poets and of Homer, who is the prince of them. In the course of
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