| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Menexenus by Plato: too, were those who delivered the Persian king, and drove the
Lacedaemonians from the sea. I remind you of them, and you must celebrate
them together with me, and do honour to their memories.
Such were the actions of the men who are here interred, and of others who
have died on behalf of their country; many and glorious things I have
spoken of them, and there are yet many more and more glorious things
remaining to be told--many days and nights would not suffice to tell of
them. Let them not be forgotten, and let every man remind their
descendants that they also are soldiers who must not desert the ranks of
their ancestors, or from cowardice fall behind. Even as I exhort you this
day, and in all future time, whenever I meet with any of you, shall
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Silas Marner by George Eliot: solemnly suspended from church-membership, and called upon to render
up the stolen money: only on confession, as the sign of repentance,
could he be received once more within the folds of the church.
Marner listened in silence. At last, when everyone rose to depart,
he went towards William Dane and said, in a voice shaken by agitation--
"The last time I remember using my knife, was when I took it out to
cut a strap for you. I don't remember putting it in my pocket
again. _You_ stole the money, and you have woven a plot to lay the
sin at my door. But you may prosper, for all that: there is no just
God that governs the earth righteously, but a God of lies, that
bears witness against the innocent."
Silas Marner |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Iliad by Homer: "Patroclus, why should you thus foretell my doom? Who knows but
Achilles, son of lovely Thetis, may be smitten by my spear and
die before me?"
As he spoke he drew the bronze spear from the wound, planting his
foot upon the body, which he thrust off and let lie on its back.
He then went spear in hand after Automedon, squire of the fleet
descendant of Aeacus, for he longed to lay him low, but the
immortal steeds which the gods had given as a rich gift to Peleus
bore him swiftly from the field.
BOOK XVII
BRAVE Menelaus son of Atreus now came to know that Patroclus had
The Iliad |
