| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from A Legend of Montrose by Walter Scott: From his musings, he was roused by the joyful sound of the dinner
bell, on which the Highlander, lately his guard, became his
gentleman-usher, and marshalled him to the hall, where a table
with four covers bore ample proofs of Highland hospitality. Sir
Duncan entered, conducting his lady, a tall, faded, melancholy
female, dressed in deep mourning. They were followed by a
Presbyterian clergyman, in his Geneva cloak, and wearing a black
silk skull-cap, covering his short hair so closely, that it could
scarce be seen at all, so that the unrestricted ears had an undue
predominance in the general aspect. This ungraceful fashion was
universal at the time, and partly led to the nicknames of
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Meno by Plato: they might be able to give a reason of their profession: there have been
poets also, who spoke of these things by inspiration, like Pindar, and many
others who were inspired. And they say--mark, now, and see whether their
words are true--they say that the soul of man is immortal, and at one time
has an end, which is termed dying, and at another time is born again, but
is never destroyed. And the moral is, that a man ought to live always in
perfect holiness. 'For in the ninth year Persephone sends the souls of
those from whom she has received the penalty of ancient crime back again
from beneath into the light of the sun above, and these are they who become
noble kings and mighty men and great in wisdom and are called saintly
heroes in after ages.' The soul, then, as being immortal, and having been
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The First Men In The Moon by H. G. Wells: we have seen of them. Their central world, their civilised world will be
far below in the profounder caverns about their sea. This region of the
crust in which we are is an outlying district, a pastoral region. At any
rate, that is my interpretation. These Selenites we have seen may be only
the equivalent of cowboys and engine-tenders. Their use of goads - in all
probability mooncalf goads - the lack of imagination they show in
expecting us to be able to do just what they can do, their indisputable
brutality, all seem to point to something of that sort. But if we endured
-"
"Neither of us could endure a six-inch plank across the bottomless pit for
very long."
The First Men In The Moon |
