| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Hiero by Xenophon: sensation, and consequently thus far there is not a pin to choose
between the life of the despot and that of a private person."
Then Simonides: Only in this respect it surely differs, in that the
pleasures which the "tyrant" enjoys through all these several avenues
of sense are many times more numerous, and the pains he suffers are
far fewer.
To which Hiero: Nay, that is not so, Simonides, take my word for it;
the fact is rather that the pleasures of the despot are far fewer than
those of people in a humbler condition, and his pains not only far
more numerous, but more intense.
That sounds incredible (exclaimed Simonides); if it were really so,
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Mountains by Stewart Edward White: away from it, wouldn't you? If you made a wide
enough circle you would inevitably cross that track,
wouldn't you? provided the horse started out with
the bunch in the first place. Then you would follow
the track, catch the horse, and bring him back. Is
this Algernon's procedure? Not any. "Ha!" says
he, "old Brownie is missing. I will hunt him up."
Then he maunders off into the scenery, trusting to
high heaven that he is going to blunder against
Brownie as a prominent feature of the landscape.
After a couple of hours you probably saddle up
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from La Grande Breteche by Honore de Balzac: my wife, as well as the lamp. There were also a deep armchair for her
confidential maid, and two small chairs. There was no fire. That was
all the furniture, not enough to fill ten lines in an inventory.
" 'My dear sir, if you had seen, as I then saw, that vast room,
papered and hung with brown, you would have felt yourself transported
into a scene of a romance. It was icy, nay more, funereal,' and he
lifted his hand with a theatrical gesture and paused.
" 'By dint of seeking, as I approached the bed, at last I saw Madame
de Merret, under the glimmer of the lamp, which fell on the pillows.
Her face was as yellow as wax, and as narrow as two folded hands. The
Countess had a lace cap showing her abundant hair, but as white as
La Grande Breteche |
