| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Tales of Unrest by Joseph Conrad: tone and looking at his boots. "I am glad . . . some spark of better
feeling," he muttered, as if to himself. He lifted up his head after
a moment of brooding silence. "I am glad to see that there is some
sense of decency left in you," he added a little louder. Looking at
her he appeared to hesitate, as if estimating the possible
consequences of what he wished to say, and at last blurted out--
"After all, I loved you. . . ."
"I did not know," she whispered.
"Good God!" he cried. "Why do you imagine I married you?"
The indelicacy of his obtuseness angered her.
"Ah--why?" she said through her teeth.
Tales of Unrest |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Oscar Wilde Miscellaneous by Oscar Wilde: signal for him to die and the whole theatre applauded. Sometimes I
pass through the gymnasium and watch the young men wrestling or in
the race. Their bodies are bright with oil and their brows are
wreathed with willow sprays and with myrtle. They stamp their feet
on the sand when they wrestle and when they run the sand follows
them like a little cloud. He at whom I smile leaves his companions
and follows me to my home. At other times I go down to the harbour
and watch the merchants unloading their vessels. Those that come
from Tyre have cloaks of silk and earrings of emerald. Those that
come from Massilia have cloaks of fine wool and earrings of brass.
When they see me coming they stand on the prows of their ships and
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Alcibiades II by Platonic Imitator: the few wise?
ALCIBIADES: I was.
SOCRATES: And have we not come back to our old assertion that the many
fail to obtain the best because they trust to opinion which is devoid of
intelligence?
ALCIBIADES: That is the case.
SOCRATES: It is good, then, for the many, if they particularly desire to
do that which they know or suppose that they know, neither to know nor to
suppose that they know, in cases where if they carry out their ideas in
action they will be losers rather than gainers?
ALCIBIADES: What you say is very true.
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