| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Eryxias by Platonic Imitator: gain the victory over the former.
Eryxias glanced at the audience, laughing and blushing at once, as if he
had had nothing to do with what had just been said, and replied,--No,
indeed, Socrates, I never supposed that our arguments should be of a kind
which would never convince any one of those here present or be of advantage
to them. For what man of sense could ever be persuaded that the wisest and
the richest are the same? The truth is that we are discussing the subject
of riches, and my notion is that we should argue respecting the honest and
dishonest means of acquiring them, and, generally, whether they are a good
thing or a bad.
Very good, I said, and I am obliged to you for the hint: in future we will
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Ivanhoe by Walter Scott: said De Bracy; ``and I leave thee to
form it.''
Hitherto, Rowena had sustained her part in this
trying scene with undismayed courage, but it was
because she had not considered the danger as serious
and imminent. Her disposition was naturally
that which physiognomists consider as proper to
fair complexions, mild, timid, and gentle; but it
had been tempered, and, as it were, hardened, by
the circumstances of her education. Accustomed
to see the will of all, even of Cedric himself, (sufficiently
Ivanhoe |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Recruit by Honore de Balzac: cloaks, and their mantles; the card-players had paid their debts, and
all the guests were preparing to leave together after the established
customs of provincial towns.
"The prosecutor, it seems, has stayed behind," said a lady, perceiving
that that important personage was missing, when the company parted in
the large square to go to their several houses.
That terrible magistrate was, in fact, alone with the countess, who
waited, trembling, till it should please him to depart.
"Citoyenne," he said, after a long silence in which there was
something terrifying, "I am here to enforce the laws of the Republic."
Madame de Dey shuddered.
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