| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from When the World Shook by H. Rider Haggard: did I, for when I glanced in that direction again Oro was gone. I
suppose that he had retreated into the shadows where no light
played.
We gathered up our gear, and while the others were relighting
the lanterns, I walked a few paces forward to the spot where Yva
had been dissolved in the devouring fire. Something caught my eye
upon the rocky floor. I picked it up. It was the ring, or rather
the remains of the ring that I had given her on that night when
we declared our love amidst the ruins by the crater lake. She had
never worn it on her hand but for her own reasons, as she told
me, suspended it upon her breast beneath her robe. It was an
When the World Shook |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Manon Lescaut by Abbe Prevost: portrait to the life: but his own vanity prevented him from
recognising it, and I did it so well that he was the first to
pronounce it extremely laughable. You will allow that I had
reason for dwelling on this ridiculous scene.
At length it was time to retire. He hinted at the impatience of
love. Lescaut and I took our departure. G---- M---- went to his
room, and Manon, making some excuse for her absence, came to join
us at the gate. The coach, that was waiting for us a few doors
off, drove up towards us, and we were out of the street in an
instant.
"Although I must confess that this proceeding appeared to me
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Philebus by Plato: expressly tells us, he is 'forging weapons of another make,' i.e. new
categories and modes of conception, though 'some of the old ones might do
again.'
But if superior in thought and dialectical power, the Philebus falls very
far short of the Republic in fancy and feeling. The development of the
reason undisturbed by the emotions seems to be the ideal at which Plato
aims in his later dialogues. There is no mystic enthusiasm or rapturous
contemplation of ideas. Whether we attribute this change to the greater
feebleness of age, or to the development of the quarrel between philosophy
and poetry in Plato's own mind, or perhaps, in some degree, to a
carelessness about artistic effect, when he was absorbed in abstract ideas,
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