| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Ion by Plato: ION: That proof strikes home to me, Socrates. For I must frankly confess
that at the tale of pity my eyes are filled with tears, and when I speak of
horrors, my hair stands on end and my heart throbs.
SOCRATES: Well, Ion, and what are we to say of a man who at a sacrifice or
festival, when he is dressed in holiday attire, and has golden crowns upon
his head, of which nobody has robbed him, appears weeping or panic-stricken
in the presence of more than twenty thousand friendly faces, when there is
no one despoiling or wronging him;--is he in his right mind or is he not?
ION: No indeed, Socrates, I must say that, strictly speaking, he is not in
his right mind.
SOCRATES: And are you aware that you produce similar effects on most of
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte: in the chimney: it sounded wild and stormy, yet it was not cold,
and we were all together - I, a little removed from the hearth,
busy at my knitting, and Joseph reading his Bible near the table
(for the servants generally sat in the house then, after their work
was done). Miss Cathy had been sick, and that made her still; she
leant against her father's knee, and Heathcliff was lying on the
floor with his head in her lap. I remember the master, before he
fell into a doze, stroking her bonny hair - it pleased him rarely
to see her gentle - and saying, 'Why canst thou not always be a
good lass, Cathy?' And she turned her face up to his, and laughed,
and answered, 'Why cannot you always be a good man, father?' But
Wuthering Heights |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Plutarch's Lives by A. H. Clough: Genthius an enemy to the Romans, but that he had given a lasting earnest
of his enmity, and by his flagrant injustice sufficiently involved
himself in the war, defrauded the unfortunate king of his three hundred
talents, and without any concern beheld him, his wife, and children, in a
short time after, carried out of their kingdom, as from their nest, by
Lucius Anicius, who was sent against him with an army.
Aemilius, coming against such an adversary, made light indeed of him, but
admired his preparation and power. For he had four thousand horse, and
not much fewer than forty thousand full-armed foot of the phalanx; and
planting himself along the seaside, at the foot of Mount Olympus, in
ground with no access on any side, and on all sides fortified with fences
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