| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Herodias by Gustave Flaubert: some anxiety, for the loss of his son would mean the loss of his
fortune.
But Aulus, quickly recovering after he had relieved his over-burdened
stomach, was as eager to eat as before.
"Let some one bring me marble-dust," he commanded, "or clay of Naxos,
sea-water--anything! Perhaps it would do me good to bathe."
He swallowed a quantity of snow; then hesitated between a ragout and a
dish of blackbirds; and finally decided in favour of gourds served in
honey. The little Asiatic gazed at his master in astonishment and
admiration; to him this exhibition of gluttony denoted a wonderful
being belonging to a superior race.
Herodias |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Europeans by Henry James: "What ought one to do?" she continued. "To give parties,
to go to the theatre, to read novels, to keep late hours?"
"I don't think it 's what one does or one does n't
do that promotes enjoyment," her companion answered.
"It is the general way of looking at life."
"They look at it as a discipline--that 's what they do here.
I have often been told that."
"Well, that 's very good. But there is another way," added Felix, smiling:
"to look at it as an opportunity."
"An opportunity--yes," said Gertrude. "One would get more pleasure that way."
"I don't attempt to say anything better for it than that it
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Charmides by Plato: Please, therefore, to inform me whether you admit the truth of what Critias
has been saying;--have you or have you not this quality of temperance?
Charmides blushed, and the blush heightened his beauty, for modesty is
becoming in youth; he then said very ingenuously, that he really could not
at once answer, either yes, or no, to the question which I had asked: For,
said he, if I affirm that I am not temperate, that would be a strange thing
for me to say of myself, and also I should give the lie to Critias, and
many others who think as he tells you, that I am temperate: but, on the
other hand, if I say that I am, I shall have to praise myself, which would
be ill manners; and therefore I do not know how to answer you.
I said to him: That is a natural reply, Charmides, and I think that you
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