| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Golden Threshold by Sarojini Naidu: woman. In the East, maturity comes early; and this child had
already lived through all a woman's life. But there was
something else, something hardly personal, something which
belonged to a consciousness older than the Christian, which I
realised, wondered at, and admired, in her passionate
tranquillity of mind, before which everything mean and trivial
and temporary caught fire and burnt away in smoke. Her body was
never without suffering, or her heart without conflict; but
neither the body's weakness nor the heart's violence could
disturb that fixed contemplation, as of Buddha on his
lotus-throne.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Republic by Plato: been already described, or is about to be described, in the abstract. Thus
the figure of the cave in Book VII is a recapitulation of the divisions of
knowledge in Book VI. The composite animal in Book IX is an allegory of
the parts of the soul. The noble captain and the ship and the true pilot
in Book VI are a figure of the relation of the people to the philosophers
in the State which has been described. Other figures, such as the dog, or
the marriage of the portionless maiden, or the drones and wasps in the
eighth and ninth books, also form links of connexion in long passages, or
are used to recall previous discussions.
Plato is most true to the character of his master when he describes him as
'not of this world.' And with this representation of him the ideal state
The Republic |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Europeans by Henry James: she would speak French; it would seem more in keeping.
It must be quite the style that we have heard about, that we
have read about--the style of conversation of Madame de Stael,
of Madame Recamier."
Acton also looked at Madame Munster's residence among its
hollyhocks and apple-trees. "What I should like to know,"
he said, smiling, "is just what has brought Madame Recamier
to live in that place!"
CHAPTER V
Mr. Wentworth, with his cane and his gloves in his hand,
went every afternoon to call upon his niece. A couple of hours
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