| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne: The engineer and conductor were talking excitedly with a signal-man,
whom the station-master at Medicine Bow, the next stopping place,
had sent on before. The passengers drew around and took part
in the discussion, in which Colonel Proctor, with his insolent manner,
was conspicuous.
Passepartout, joining the group, heard the signal-man say,
"No! you can't pass. The bridge at Medicine Bow is shaky,
and would not bear the weight of the train."
This was a suspension-bridge thrown over some rapids, about a
mile from the place where they now were. According to the
signal-man, it was in a ruinous condition, several of the iron
Around the World in 80 Days |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Caesar's Commentaries in Latin by Julius Caesar: (nam equitatui, quem auxilio Caesari Haedui miserant, Dumnorix praeerat):
eorum fuga reliquum esse equitatum perterritum.
Quibus rebus cognitis, cum ad has suspiciones certissimae res
accederent, quod per fines Sequanorum Helvetios traduxisset, quod obsides
inter eos dandos curasset, quod ea omnia non modo iniussu suo et civitatis
sed etiam inscientibus ipsis fecisset, quod a magistratu Haeduorum
accusaretur, satis esse causae arbitrabatur quare in eum aut ipse
animadverteret aut civitatem animadvertere iuberet. His omnibus rebus
unum repugnabat, quod Diviciaci fratris summum in populum Romanum studium,
summum in se voluntatem, egregiam fidem, iustitiam, temperantiam
cognoverat; nam ne eius supplicio Diviciaci animum offenderet verebatur.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Republic by Plato: vehicles of a higher truth; not on a system like Theagenes of Rhegium or
Metrodorus, or in later times the Stoics, but as fancy may dictate. And
the conclusions drawn from them are sound, although the premises are
fictitious. These fanciful appeals to Homer add a charm to Plato's style,
and at the same time they have the effect of a satire on the follies of
Homeric interpretation. To us (and probably to himself), although they
take the form of arguments, they are really figures of speech. They may be
compared with modern citations from Scripture, which have often a great
rhetorical power even when the original meaning of the words is entirely
lost sight of. The real, like the Platonic Socrates, as we gather from the
Memorabilia of Xenophon, was fond of making similar adaptations. Great in
The Republic |
