| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Soul of Man by Oscar Wilde: to live with Princes. The Pope may be cultivated. Many Popes have
been; the bad Popes have been. The bad Popes loved Beauty, almost
as passionately, nay, with as much passion as the good Popes hated
Thought. To the wickedness of the Papacy humanity owes much. The
goodness of the Papacy owes a terrible debt to humanity. Yet,
though the Vatican has kept the rhetoric of its thunders, and lost
the rod of its lightning, it is better for the artist not to live
with Popes. It was a Pope who said of Cellini to a conclave of
Cardinals that common laws and common authority were not made for
men such as he; but it was a Pope who thrust Cellini into prison,
and kept him there till he sickened with rage, and created unreal
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The People That Time Forgot by Edgar Rice Burroughs: part of what I learned had naught to do with any new language.
Ajor seemed determined that I should speak Caspakian as quickly
as possible, and I thought I saw in her desire a little of that
all-feminine trait which has come down through all the ages
from the first lady of the world--curiosity. Ajor desired that
I should speak her tongue in order that she might satisfy a
curiosity concerning me that was filling her to a point where
she was in danger of bursting; of that I was positive. She was
a regular little animated question-mark. She bubbled over
with interrogations which were never to be satisfied unless
I learned to speak her tongue. Her eyes sparkled with
The People That Time Forgot |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Alcibiades I by Plato: unwise?
ALCIBIADES: The wise.
SOCRATES: And a man is good in respect of that in which he is wise?
ALCIBIADES: Yes.
SOCRATES: And evil in respect of that in which he is unwise?
ALCIBIADES: Certainly.
SOCRATES: The shoemaker, for example, is wise in respect of the making of
shoes?
ALCIBIADES: Yes.
SOCRATES: Then he is good in that?
ALCIBIADES: He is.
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