| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Alcibiades I by Plato: his sons wise?
ALCIBIADES: But, Socrates, if the two sons of Pericles were simpletons,
what has that to do with the matter?
SOCRATES: Well, but did he make your brother, Cleinias, wise?
ALCIBIADES: Cleinias is a madman; there is no use in talking of him.
SOCRATES: But if Cleinias is a madman and the two sons of Pericles were
simpletons, what reason can be given why he neglects you, and lets you be
as you are?
ALCIBIADES: I believe that I am to blame for not listening to him.
SOCRATES: But did you ever hear of any other Athenian or foreigner, bond
or free, who was deemed to have grown wiser in the society of Pericles,--as
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Island Nights' Entertainments by Robert Louis Stevenson: "One time one road," said he. "Now he dead."
"Nobody he go there?" I asked.
"No good," said he. "Too much devil he stop there."
"Oho!" says I, "got-um plenty devil, that bush?"
"Man devil, woman devil; too much devil," said my friend. "Stop
there all-e-time. Man he go there, no come back."
I thought if this fellow was so well posted on devils and spoke of
them so free, which is not common, I had better fish for a little
information about myself and Uma.
"You think me one devil?" I asked.
"No think devil," said he soothingly. "Think all-e-same fool."
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Voice of the City by O. Henry: discovery by the summer-resort promoters. It is
deep and wide and cool. Its rooms are finished in
dark oak of a low temperature. Home-made breezes
and deep-green shrubbery give it the delights without
the inconveniences of the Adirondacks. One can
mount its broad staircases or glide dreamily upward
in its aerial elevators, attended by guides in brass but-
tons, with a serene joy that Alpine climbers have
never attained. There is a chef in its kitchen who
will prepare for you brook trout better than the White
Mountains ever served, sea food that would turn Old
The Voice of the City |
