| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from In the Cage by Henry James: that it was impossible sufficiently to put it on; for what she
wished to express to him was the maximum of her contempt, and that
element in her nature was confusedly stored. "A bishop" was
putting it on, but the counter-clerk's approaches were vile. The
night, after this, when, in the fulness of time, Mrs. Jordan
mentioned the grand long talks, the girl at last brought out:
"Should I see them?--I mean if I WERE to give up everything for
you."
Mrs. Jordan at this became most arch. "I'd send you to all the
bachelors!"
Our young lady could be reminded by such a remark that she usually
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Theaetetus by Plato: objects to the right impressions--in their stupidity they confuse them, and
are apt to see and hear and think amiss--and such men are said to be
deceived in their knowledge of objects, and ignorant.
THEAETETUS: No man, Socrates, can say anything truer than that.
SOCRATES: Then now we may admit the existence of false opinion in us?
THEAETETUS: Certainly.
SOCRATES: And of true opinion also?
THEAETETUS: Yes.
SOCRATES: We have at length satisfactorily proven beyond a doubt there are
these two sorts of opinion?
THEAETETUS: Undoubtedly.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Devil's Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce: called, also, a hen, or cat. Old witches, sorceresses, etc., were
called hags from the belief that their heads were surrounded by a kind
of baleful lumination or nimbus -- hag being the popular name of that
peculiar electrical light sometimes observed in the hair. At one time
hag was not a word of reproach: Drayton speaks of a "beautiful hag,
all smiles," much as Shakespeare said, "sweet wench." It would not
now be proper to call your sweetheart a hag -- that compliment is
reserved for the use of her grandchildren.
HALF, n. One of two equal parts into which a thing may be divided, or
considered as divided. In the fourteenth century a heated discussion
arose among theologists and philosophers as to whether Omniscience
The Devil's Dictionary |
