| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The American by Henry James: He spent a great deal of time in listening to advice from
Mrs. Tristram; advice, it must be added, for which he had
never asked. He would have been incapable of asking for it,
for he had no perception of difficulties, and consequently
no curiosity about remedies. The complex Parisian world
about him seemed a very simple affair; it was an immense,
amazing spectacle, but it neither inflamed his imagination nor
irritated his curiosity. He kept his hands in his pockets,
looked on good-humoredly, desired to miss nothing important,
observed a great many things narrowly, and never reverted to himself.
Mrs. Tristram's "advice" was a part of the show, and a more
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from A Hero of Our Time by M.Y. Lermontov: of the future life, I think only of you. . . You
men do not understand the delights of a glance,
of a pressure of the hand . . . but as for me, I
swear to you that, when I listen to your voice,
I feel such a deep, strange bliss that the most
passionate kisses could not take its place."
Meanwhile, Princess Mary had finished her
song. Murmurs of praise were to be heard all
around. I went up to her after all the other
guests, and said something rather carelessly to
her on the subject of her voice.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Republic by Plato: guardians will have to watch, or they will creep into the city unobserved.
What evils?
Wealth, I said, and poverty; the one is the parent of luxury and indolence,
and the other of meanness and viciousness, and both of discontent.
That is very true, he replied; but still I should like to know, Socrates,
how our city will be able to go to war, especially against an enemy who is
rich and powerful, if deprived of the sinews of war.
There would certainly be a difficulty, I replied, in going to war with one
such enemy; but there is no difficulty where there are two of them.
How so? he asked.
In the first place, I said, if we have to fight, our side will be trained
The Republic |
