| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Memorabilia by Xenophon: requite you in kind. It is by taking another into your counsel that
you arrive at the secret of his wisdom. If, on like principle, you
will but make trial of the gods by acts of service, whether they will
choose to give you counsel in matters obscure to mortal vision, you
shall discover the nature and the greatness of Godhead to be such that
they are able at once to see all things and to hear all things and to
be present everywhere, nor does the least thing escape their watchful
care.
[16] Or, "reason as you are wont to do."
To my mind the effect of words like these was to cause those about him
to hold aloof from unholiness, baseness, and injustice, not only
The Memorabilia |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Ten Years Later by Alexandre Dumas: less majestic than he had appeared with his flock. After a
quarter of an hour, which D'Artagnan and Porthos passed in
looking mutually at each other with the white of their eyes,
and turning their thumbs in all the different evolutions
which go from north to south, a door of the chamber opened
and His Greatness appeared, dressed in the undress,
complete, of a prelate. Aramis carried his head high, like a
man accustomed to command: his violet robe was tucked up on
one side, and his white hand was on his hip. He had retained
the fine mustache, and the lengthened royale of the time of
Louis XIII. He exhaled, on entering, that delicate perfume
Ten Years Later |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Falk by Joseph Conrad: lence reigned over the rocks, the shore and the sea,
for the time it took him to raise his hat aloft before
the nymph of the grey print frock. I had snatched
up my binoculars, and I can answer for it she didn't
stir a limb, standing by the rail shapely and erect,
with one of her hands grasping a rope at the height
of her head, while the way of the tug carried slowly
past her the lingering and profound homage of the
man. There was for me an enormous significance
in the scene, the sense of having witnessed a solemn
declaration. The die was cast. After such a man-
Falk |
