| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Roads of Destiny by O. Henry: charm and command! Perhaps she had seen David coming, and had waited
for his help there.
Ah, would monsieur pardon that she occupied the stairway, but the
shoe!--the naughty shoe! Alas! it would not remain tied. Ah! if
monsieur /would/ be so gracious!
The poet's fingers trembled as he tied the contrary ribbons. Then he
would have fled from the danger of her presence, but the eyes grew
long and cozening, like a gypsy's, and held him. He leaned against the
balustrade, clutching his bottle of sour wine.
"You have been so good," she said, smiling. "Does monsieur, perhaps,
live in the house?"
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Critias by Plato: parts, the walls and pillars and floor, they coated with orichalcum. In
the temple they placed statues of gold: there was the god himself standing
in a chariot--the charioteer of six winged horses--and of such a size that
he touched the roof of the building with his head; around him there were a
hundred Nereids riding on dolphins, for such was thought to be the number
of them by the men of those days. There were also in the interior of the
temple other images which had been dedicated by private persons. And
around the temple on the outside were placed statues of gold of all the
descendants of the ten kings and of their wives, and there were many other
great offerings of kings and of private persons, coming both from the city
itself and from the foreign cities over which they held sway. There was an
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Beyond Good and Evil by Friedrich Nietzsche: according to choice; to lower oneself to them for hours; to SEAT
oneself on them as upon horses, and often as upon asses:--for one
must know how to make use of their stupidity as well as of their
fire. To conserve one's three hundred foregrounds; also one's
black spectacles: for there are circumstances when nobody must
look into our eyes, still less into our "motives." And to choose
for company that roguish and cheerful vice, politeness. And to
remain master of one's four virtues, courage, insight, sympathy,
and solitude. For solitude is a virtue with us, as a sublime bent
and bias to purity, which divines that in the contact of man and
man--"in society"--it must be unavoidably impure. All society
Beyond Good and Evil |
