| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Insidious Dr. Fu-Manchu by Sax Rohmer: "No, Doctor; she was afraid. But I spent last night downstairs
in the sitting-room--and _I_ looked out!"
He took a gulp from his glass. Nayland Smith, seated on
the edge of the table, his extinguished pipe in his hand,
was watching him keenly.
"I'll admit I didn't look out at once," Weymouth resumed.
"There was something so uncanny, gentlemen, in that knocking--
knocking--in the dead of the night. I thought"--his voice
shook--"of poor Jack, lying somewhere amongst the slime
of the river--and, oh, my God! it came to me that it was Jack
who was knocking--and I dare not think what he--what it--
The Insidious Dr. Fu-Manchu |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Alcibiades I by Plato: concerning the date and authorship of the writings which are ascribed to
him. And several of the citations of Aristotle omit the name of Plato, and
some of them omit the name of the dialogue from which they are taken.
Prior, however, to the enquiry about the writings of a particular author,
general considerations which equally affect all evidence to the genuineness
of ancient writings are the following: Shorter works are more likely to
have been forged, or to have received an erroneous designation, than longer
ones; and some kinds of composition, such as epistles or panegyrical
orations, are more liable to suspicion than others; those, again, which
have a taste of sophistry in them, or the ring of a later age, or the
slighter character of a rhetorical exercise, or in which a motive or some
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Egmont by Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe: as idle fancies; and though you always seem well satisfied with my
services, you have seldom felt inclined to follow my advice. How often
have you said in jest: "You see too far, Machiavel! You should be an
historian; he who acts, must provide for the exigence of the hour." And yet
have I not predicted this terrible history? Have I not foreseen it all?
Regent. I too foresee many things, without being able to avert them.
Machiavel. In one word, then:---you will not be able to suppress the new
faith. Let it be recognized, separate its votaries from the true believers,
give them churches of their own, include them within the pale of social
order, subject them to the restraints of law,--do this, and you will at once
tranquillize the insurgents. All other measures will prove abortive, and you
Egmont |
