| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Essays & Lectures by Oscar Wilde: the skull, the dreamer and the man of science were both right; it
was the business of the latter to consider how the prodigy came
about, of the former to show why it was so formed and what it so
portended. The progression of thought is exemplified in all
particulars. Herodotus had a glimmering sense of the impossibility
of a violation of nature. Thucydides ignored the supernatural.
Polybius rationalised it. Plutarch raises it to its mystical
heights again, though he bases it on law. In a word, Plutarch felt
that while science brings the supernatural down to the natural, yet
ultimately all that is natural is really supernatural. To him, as
to many of our own day, religion was that transcendental attitude
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Apology by Xenophon: arguments to put quite innocent people to death, and not less often to
acquit the guilty, either through some touch of pity excited by the
pleadings, or that the defendant had skill to turn some charming
phrase?" Thus appealed to, Socrates replied: "Nay, solemnly I tell
you, twice already I have essayed to consider my defence, and twice
the divinity[9] hinders me"; and to the remark of Hermogenes, "That is
strange!" he answered again: "Strange, do you call it, that to God it
should seem better for me to die at once? Do you not know that up to
this moment I will not concede to any man to have lived a better life
than I have; since what can exceed the pleasure, which has been mine,
of knowing[10] that my whole life has been spent holily and justly?
The Apology |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Tarzan the Untamed by Edgar Rice Burroughs: She raised the spear to fend off the heavy missile, but she
was not entirely successful, and the impact of the blow carried
her backward upon the couch, and instantly Metak was upon her.
Tarzan and Smith-Oldwick gave little thought as to what
had become of the other two occupants of the room. They
were gone, and so far as these two were concerned they might
never return. Tarzan's one desire was to reach the street
again, where, now that both of them were in some sort of
disguise, they should be able to proceed with comparative
safety to the palace and continue their search for the girl.
Smith-Oldwick preceded Tarzan along the corridor and as
Tarzan the Untamed |
