| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Symposium by Plato: wealth; but the love of the noble mind is lasting. The lover should be
tested, and the beloved should not be too ready to yield. The rule in our
country is that the beloved may do the same service to the lover in the way
of virtue which the lover may do to him.
A voluntary service to be rendered for the sake of virtue and wisdom is
permitted among us; and when these two customs--one the love of youth, the
other the practice of virtue and philosophy--meet in one, then the lovers
may lawfully unite. Nor is there any disgrace to a disinterested lover in
being deceived: but the interested lover is doubly disgraced, for if he
loses his love he loses his character; whereas the noble love of the other
remains the same, although the object of his love is unworthy: for nothing
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Dracula by Bram Stoker: something for me which would make me sleep, only that I fear to alarm them.
Such a dream at the present time would become woven into their fears for me.
Tonight I shall strive hard to sleep naturally. If I do not, I shall tomorrow
night get them to give me a dose of chloral, that cannot hurt me for once,
and it will give me a good night's sleep. Last night tired me more than if I
had not slept at all.
2 October 10 P.M.--Last night I slept, but did not dream.
I must have slept soundly, for I was not waked by Jonathan
coming to bed, but the sleep has not refreshed me, for today I
feel terribly weak and spiritless. I spent all yesterday trying
to read, or lying down dozing. In the afternoon, Mr. Renfield
Dracula |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Westward Ho! by Charles Kingsley: Spirit's sanctuary with their skulls and bones. Not that Amyas, as
a plain old-fashioned churchman, was unmindful of the good old
instinctive rule, that something should be given to the Church
itself; for the vicar of Northam was soon resplendent with a new
surplice, and what was more, the altar with a splendid flagon and
salver of plate (lost, I suppose, in the civil wars) which had been
taken in the great galleon. Ayacanora could understand that: but
the almsgiving she could not, till Mrs. Leigh told her, in her
simple way, that whosoever gave to the poor, gave to the Great
Spirit; for the Great Spirit was in them, and in Ayacanora too, if
she would be quiet and listen to him, instead of pouting, and
|
