| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Walden by Henry David Thoreau: The change from storm and winter to serene and mild weather,
from dark and sluggish hours to bright and elastic ones, is a
memorable crisis which all things proclaim. It is seemingly
instantaneous at last. Suddenly an influx of light filled my house,
though the evening was at hand, and the clouds of winter still
overhung it, and the eaves were dripping with sleety rain. I looked
out the window, and lo! where yesterday was cold gray ice there lay
the transparent pond already calm and full of hope as in a summer
evening, reflecting a summer evening sky in its bosom, though none
was visible overhead, as if it had intelligence with some remote
horizon. I heard a robin in the distance, the first I had heard for
Walden |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Forged Coupon by Leo Tolstoy: Two of the peasants who had killed Peter
Nikolaevich Sventizky, had been sentenced to
the gallows, and Mahorkin was ordered to go to
Pensa to hang them. On all previous occasions
he used to write a petition to the governor of the
province--he knew well how to read and to write
--stating that he had been ordered to fulfil his
duty, and asking for money for his expenses. But
now, to the greatest astonishment of the prison
authorities, he said he did not intend to go, and
added that he would not be a hangman any more.
The Forged Coupon |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Memorabilia by Xenophon: Cri. Hold aloof from him, say I, since there is no good to be got out
of him or his society.
Soc. Well! what of the quarrelsome and factious person[4] whose main
object is to saddle his friends with a host of enemies?
[4] "The partisan."
Cri. For God's sake let us avoid him also.
Soc. But now we will imagine a man exempt indeed from all the above
defects--a man who has no objection to receive kindnesses, but it
never enters into his head to do a kindness in return.
Cri. There will be no good in him either. But, Socrates, what kind of
man shall we endeavour to make our friend? what is he like?
The Memorabilia |
