| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Apology by Xenophon: should," etc. For {proxenei} cf. "Anab." VI. v. 14; Soph. "O. C."
465, and "O. T." 1483; and Prof. Jebb's notes ad loc. "the god's
kindly offices grant to me that I should lose my life."
[15] Cf. Plat. "Phaed." 66.
"No doubt," he added, "the gods were right in opposing me at that time
(touching the inquiry, what I was to say in my defence),[16] when you
all thought the great thing was to discover some means of
acquittal;[17] since, had I effected that, it is clear I should have
prepared for myself, not that surcease from life which is in store for
me anon, but to end my days wasted by disease, or by old age, on which
a confluent stream of evil things most alien to joyousness
The Apology |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Tales and Fantasies by Robert Louis Stevenson: share of the fine; not one but evinced a wonderful twinkle of
hope that each of the others (in succession) was the very man
who could step in to make good the deficit. One took a high
hand; he could not pay his share; if it went to a trial, he
should bolt; he had always felt the English Bar to be his
true sphere. Another branched out into touching details
about his family, and was not listened to. John, in the
midst of this disorderly competition of poverty and meanness,
sat stunned, contemplating the mountain bulk of his
misfortunes.
At last, upon a pledge that each should apply to his family
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Catriona by Robert Louis Stevenson: though it was far from closing up my sense of the dangers that
surrounded me, nor of how very apt I was (if I went on) to stumble on
the ladder of the gallows. It was a plain, fair morning, but the wind
in the east. The little chill of it sang in my blood, and gave me a
feeling of the autumn, and the dead leaves, and dead folks' bodies in
their graves. It seemed the devil was in it, if I was to die in that
tide of my fortunes and for other folks' affairs. On the top of the
Calton Hill, though it was not the customary time of year for that
diversion, some children were crying and running with their kites.
These toys appeared very plain against the sky; I remarked a great one
soar on the wind to a high altitude and then plump among the whins; and
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