| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Eryxias by Platonic Imitator: on to say, of all other things; men make them to be what they are
themselves. The saying of Archilochus is true:--
'Men's thoughts correspond to the things which they meet with.'
Well, then, replied the youth, if any one makes me wise in that wisdom
whereby good men become wise, he must also make everything else good to me.
Not that he concerns himself at all with these other things, but he has
converted my ignorance into wisdom. If, for example, a person teach me
grammar or music, he will at the same time teach me all that relates to
grammar or music, and so when he makes me good, he makes things good to me.
Prodicus did not altogether agree: still he consented to what was said.
And do you think, said the youth, that doing good things is like building a
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Mistress Wilding by Rafael Sabatini: was of a sudden turned to garboil. Every man of that company - with the
sole exception of Richard himself - was on his feet, and all were
speaking at once, in clamouring, excited chorus.
Wilding alone - the butt of their expostulations - stood quietly
smiling, and wiped his face at last with a kerchief of finest lawn.
Dominating the others in the Babel rose the voice of Sir Rowland
Blake - impecunious Blake; Blake lately of the Guards, who had sold
his commission as the only thing remaining him upon which he could
raise money; Blake, that other suitor for Miss Westmacott's hand, the
suitor favoured by her brother.
"You shall not do it, Mr. Wilding," he shouted, his face crimson. "No,
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from An Episode Under the Terror by Honore de Balzac: ran the greatest danger. If a brave man is weighed down by great
calamities or the yoke of persecution, he begins, as it were, by
making the sacrifice of himself; and thereafter every day of his life
becomes one more victory snatched from fate. But from the way in which
the women looked at him it was easy to see that their intense anxiety
was on his account.
"Why should our faith in God fail us, my sisters?" he said, in low but
fervent tones. "We sang His praises through the shrieks of murderers
and their victims at the Carmelites. If it was His will that I should
come alive out of that butchery, it was, no doubt, because I was
reserved for some fate which I am bound to endure without murmuring.
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