| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne: into nothing, by one extreme,--as they are condensed in colder climates by
the other;--but he traced the affair up to its spring-head;--shewed that,
in warmer climates, nature had laid a lighter tax upon the fairest parts of
the creation;--their pleasures more;--the necessity of their pains less,
insomuch that the pressure and resistance upon the vertex was so slight,
that the whole organization of the cerebellum was preserved;--nay, he did
not believe, in natural births, that so much as a single thread of the net-
work was broke or displaced,--so that the soul might just act as she liked.
When my father had got so far,--what a blaze of light did the accounts of
the Caesarian section, and of the towering geniuses who had come safe into
the world by it, cast upon this hypothesis? Here you see, he would say,
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Laches by Plato: suppose I shall let you out of the partnership; for I shall expect you to
apply your mind, and join with me in the consideration of the question.
LACHES: I will if you think that I ought.
SOCRATES: Yes, I do; but I must beg of you, Nicias, to begin again. You
remember that we originally considered courage to be a part of virtue.
NICIAS: Very true.
SOCRATES: And you yourself said that it was a part; and there were many
other parts, all of which taken together are called virtue.
NICIAS: Certainly.
SOCRATES: Do you agree with me about the parts? For I say that justice,
temperance, and the like, are all of them parts of virtue as well as
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Almayer's Folly by Joseph Conrad: know Tuan, having travelled much, as you say. However, it is
late; we will finish our talk to-morrow."
Dain bent low trying to convey in a last glance towards the girl
the bold expression of his overwhelming admiration. The next
minute he was shaking Almayer's hand with grave courtesy, his
face wearing a look of stolid unconcern as to any feminine
presence. His men filed off, and he followed them quickly,
closely attended by a thick-set, savage-looking Sumatrese he had
introduced before as the commander of his brig. Nina walked to
the balustrade of the verandah and saw the sheen of moonlight on
the steel spear-heads and heard the rhythmic jingle of brass
Almayer's Folly |
