| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Lock and Key Library by Julian Hawthorne, Ed.: those swarthy attendants, who doubtless are slaves to your orders?"
"Confide in slaves, when the first task enjoined to them would be
to discover, and refrain from purloining gold! Seven such
unscrupulous knaves, or even one such, and I, thus defenseless and
feeble! Such is not the work that wise masters confide to fierce
slaves. But that is the least of the reasons which exclude them
from my choice, and fix my choice of assistant on you. Do you
forget what I told you of the danger which the Dervish declared no
bribe I could offer could tempt him a second time to brave?"
"I remember now; those words had passed away from my mind."
"And because they had passed away from your mind, I chose you for
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Second Inaugural Address by Abraham Lincoln: to those by whom the offense came, shall we discern therein any
departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a
living God always ascribe to him? Fondly do we hope--fervently
do we pray--that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away.
Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by
the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil
shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn by the lash
shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said
three thousand years ago, so still it must be said, "The
judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether."
With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in
Second Inaugural Address |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Symposium by Xenophon: A goodly king and eke a spearman bold.[9]
[7] Some modern critics (e.g. F. Dummler, "Antisthenica," p. 29 foll.)
maintain plausibly that the author is here glancing (as also Plato
in the "Ion") at Antisthenes' own treatises against the
Rhapsodists and on a more correct interpretation of Homer, {peri
exegeton} and {peri 'Omerou}.
[8] Or, "Have you the knowledge also how to play the king?"
[9] "Il." iii. 179. See "Mem." III. ii. 2.
Nic. Full well I know it, and full well I know the duty of a skilful
charioteer; how he who holds the ribbons must turn his chariot nigh
the pillar's edge[10]
The Symposium |
