| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Euthyphro by Plato: of the nature of right and truth. A man must be an extraordinary man, and
have made great strides in wisdom, before he could have seen his way to
bring such an action.
EUTHYPHRO: Indeed, Socrates, he must.
SOCRATES: I suppose that the man whom your father murdered was one of your
relatives--clearly he was; for if he had been a stranger you would never
have thought of prosecuting him.
EUTHYPHRO: I am amused, Socrates, at your making a distinction between one
who is a relation and one who is not a relation; for surely the pollution
is the same in either case, if you knowingly associate with the murderer
when you ought to clear yourself and him by proceeding against him. The
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Chouans by Honore de Balzac: the Chouans fighting an open battle? Well, all the better! they won't
shoot us off like dogs along the road." Then, raising his voice till
it echoed through the woods, he exclaimed, "Come on, my men! Shall we
let ourselves be /fooled/ by those brigands?"
The word here given is but a feeble equivalent of the one the brave
commandant used; but every veteran can substitute the real one, which
was far more soldierly in character.
"Gerard! Merle!" added Hulot, "call in your men, form them into a
battalion, take the rear, fire upon those dogs, and let's make an end
of this!"
The order was difficult to obey, for the young chief, hearing Hulot's
The Chouans |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll: gate--would you like to hear it?'
`Very much indeed,' Alice said politely.
`I'll tell you how I came to think of it,' said the Knight.
`You see, I said to myself, "The only difficulty is with the
feet: the HEAD is high enough already." Now, first I put my
head on the top of the gate--then I stand on my head--then
the feet are high enough, you see--then I'm over, you see.'
`Yes, I suppose you'd be over when that was done,' Alice said
thoughtfully: `but don't you think it would be rather hard?'
`I haven't tried it yet,' the Knight said, gravely: `so I can't tell
for certain--but I'm afraid it WOULD be a little hard.'
Through the Looking-Glass |
