| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Witch, et. al by Anton Chekhov: listen."
The testament was an old and heavy one in leather binding, with
dog's-eared edges, and it exhaled a smell as though monks had
come into the hut. Sasha raised her eyebrows and began in a loud
rhythmic chant:
" 'And the angel of the Lord . . . appeared unto Joseph, saying
unto him: Rise up, and take the Babe and His mother.' "
"The Babe and His mother," Olga repeated, and flushed all over
with emotion.
" 'And flee into Egypt, . . . and tarry there until such time as
. . .' "
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Octopus by Frank Norris: white enamelled "set" of the bedroom furniture, the three chairs,
wash-stand and bureau,--the bureau drawers falling out, spilling
their contents into the dust; there were the white wool rugs of
the sitting-room, the flower stand, with its pots all broken, its
flowers wilting; the cracked goldfish globe, the fishes already
dead; the rocking chair, the sewing machine, the great round
table of yellow oak, the lamp with its deep shade of crinkly red
tissue paper, the pretty tinted photographs that had hung on the
wall--the choir boys with beautiful eyes, the pensive young girls
in pink gowns--the pieces of wood carving that represented quails
and ducks, and, last of all, its curtains of crisp, clean muslin,
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Apology by Xenophon: him, "Il." xvi. 851 foll.; and Hector that of Achilles, "Il."
xxii. 358 foll. Cf. Cic. "de Div." 1, 30. Plato, "Apol." 39 C,
making Socrates thus address his judges: {to de de meta touto
epithumo umin khresmodesai, o katapsephisamenoi mou' kai gar eimi
ede entautha, en o malist' anthropoi khresmodousin, otan mellosin
apothaneisthai}. "And now, O men who have condemned me, I would
fain prophesy to you, for I am about to die, and that is the hour
at which all men are gifted with prophetic power" (Jowett).
The prophecy proved true. The young man fell a victim to the pleasures
of wine; night and day he never ceased drinking, and at last became a
mere good-for-nothing, worthless alike to his city, his friends, and
The Apology |
