| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Protagoras by Plato: the context, in which he says that God only has this gift. Now he cannot
surely mean to say that to be good is evil, when he afterwards proceeds to
say that God only has this gift, and that this is the attribute of him and
of no other. For if this be his meaning, Prodicus would impute to
Simonides a character of recklessness which is very unlike his countrymen.
And I should like to tell you, I said, what I imagine to be the real
meaning of Simonides in this poem, if you will test what, in your way of
speaking, would be called my skill in poetry; or if you would rather, I
will be the listener.
To this proposal Protagoras replied: As you please;--and Hippias,
Prodicus, and the others told me by all means to do as I proposed.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Memoir of Fleeming Jenkin by Robert Louis Stevenson: begin in a poor way and end, after getting gradually happier, in an
ecstasy of enjoyment. The common novel is not the thing at all.
It gives struggle followed by relief. I want each act to close on
a new and triumphant happiness, which has been steadily growing all
the while. This is the real antithesis of tragedy, where things
get blacker and blacker and end in hopeless woe. Smiles has not
grasped my grand idea, and only shows a bitter struggle followed by
a little respite before death. Some feeble critic might say my new
idea was not true to nature. I'm sick of this old-fashioned notion
of art. Hold a mirror up, indeed! Let's paint a picture of how
things ought to be and hold that up to nature, and perhaps the poor
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Padre Ignacio by Owen Wister: fortune; and the Padre stood watching the dust after the rider had passed
from sight. Then he went into his room with a drawn face. But appearances
at least had been kept up to the end; the youth would never know of the
elder man's unrest.
V
Temptation had arrived with Gaston, but was destined to make a longer
stay at Santa Ysabel del Mar. Yet it was perhaps a week before the priest
knew this guest was come to abide with him. The guest could be discreet,
could withdraw, was not at first importunate.
Sail away on the barkentine? A wild notion, to be sure! although fit
enough to enter the brain of such a young scape-grace. The Padre shook
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