| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Alexandria and her Schools by Charles Kingsley: nature itself being--what?
And how to answer that last question was the abysmal problem of the
whole of Neoplatonic philosophy, in searching for which it wearied
itself out, generation after generation, till tired equally of seeking
and of speaking, it fairly lay down and died. In proportion as it
refused to acknowledge a common divine nature with the degraded mass, it
deserted its first healthy instinct, which told it that the spiritual
world is identical with the moral world, with right, love, justice; it
tried to find new definitions for the spiritual; it conceived it to be
identical with the intellectual. That did not satisfy its heart. It
had to repeople the spiritual world, which it had emptied of its proper
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Garden Party by Katherine Mansfield: Laura only wanted to get out, to get away. She was back in the passage.
The door opened. She walked straight through into the bedroom, where the
dead man was lying.
"You'd like a look at 'im, wouldn't you?" said Em's sister, and she brushed
past Laura over to the bed. "Don't be afraid, my lass,"--and now her voice
sounded fond and sly, and fondly she drew down the sheet--"'e looks a
picture. There's nothing to show. Come along, my dear."
Laura came.
There lay a young man, fast asleep--sleeping so soundly, so deeply, that he
was far, far away from them both. Oh, so remote, so peaceful. He was
dreaming. Never wake him up again. His head was sunk in the pillow, his
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Philosophy 4 by Owen Wister: At this racial suggestion both boys made the room joyous with mirth.
Oscar stood uneasily contemplating them. He would never be able to
understand them, not as long as he lived, nor they him. When their
mirth Was over he did somewhat better, but it was tardy. You see, he
was not a specimen of the first rank, or he would have said at once what
he said now: "I wish to study my notes a little myself, gentlemen."
"Go along, Oscar, with your inflammable notes, go along!" said Bertie,
in supreme good-humor. "And we'll meet to-morrow at ten--if there
hasn't been a fire--Better keep your notes in the bath, Oscar."
In as much haste as could be made with a good appearance, Oscar buckled
his volume in its leather cover, gathered his hat and pencil, and,
|