| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Ten Years Later by Alexandre Dumas: "But you know, monsieur le chevalier, that I am not willing
to become a passive and indifferent spectator of the death
of the two poor devils."
"And I, then -- do you think I am a savage? We will go in
again, when it is time to do so. Come along!" And they made
their way towards the front of the house, and placed
themselves near the window which, still more strangely than
the rest, remained unoccupied. The two last drinkers,
instead of looking out at this window, kept up the fire. On
seeing D'Artagnan and his friend enter: -- "Ah! ah! a
reinforcement," murmured they.
Ten Years Later |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Koran: after Him; verily, He is clement, forgiving.
They swore by God with their most strenuous oath, verily, if there
come to them a warner they would be more guided than any one of the
nations; but when a warner comes to them, it only increases them in
aversion, and in being big with pride in the earth, and in plotting
evil; but the plotting of evil only entangles those who practise it;
can they then expect aught but the course of those of yore? but thou
shalt not find any alteration in the course of God; and they shall not
find any change in the course of God.
Have they not journeyed on in the land and seen what was the end
of those before them who were stronger than they? but God, nothing can
The Koran |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Alexandria and her Schools by Charles Kingsley: artificial idyllists, artificial dramatists and epicists; above all, a
generation of critics. Or rather shall we say, that the dynasty was not
the cause of a literary age, but only its correlative? That when the
old Greeks lost the power of being free, of being anything but the
slaves of oriental despots, as the Ptolemies in reality were, they lost
also the power of producing true works of art; because they had lost
that youthful vigour of mind from which both art and freedom sprang?
Let the case be as it will, Alexandrian literature need not detain us
long--though, alas! it has detained every boy who ever trembled over his
Greek grammar, for many a weary year; and, I cannot help suspecting, has
been the main cause that so many young men who have spent seven years in
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