| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Court Life in China by Isaac Taylor Headland: into every nook and corner of the empire. They have rendered
inestimable service to China by the laborious task of translating
into the Chinese language religious and scientific works of the
West. They help us to bring happiness and comfort to the poor and
the suffering, by the establishment of hospitals and schools. The
awakening of China, which now seems to be at hand, may be traced
in no small measure to the influence of the missionary. For this
service you will find China not ungrateful."
Some may think that this was simply a sentiment expressed on this
particular occasion because he happened to be surrounded by
secretaries and others interested in this cause. That this is not
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Country of the Pointed Firs by Sarah Orne Jewett: in, and plenty of small fish were coming with it, unconscious of
the silver flashing of the great birds overhead and the quickness
of their fierce beaks. The sea was full of life and spirit, the
tops of the waves flew back as if they were winged like the gulls
themselves, and like them had the freedom of the wind. Out in the
main channel we passed a bent-shouldered old fisherman bound for
the evening round among his lobster traps. He was toiling along
with short oars, and the dory tossed and sank and tossed again with
the steamer's waves. I saw that it was old Elijah Tilley, and
though we had so long been strangers we had come to be warm
friends, and I wished that he had waited for one of his mates, it
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Republic by Plato: salvation, and they will be the saviours of the State. But should they
ever acquire homes or lands or moneys of their own, they will become
housekeepers and husbandmen instead of guardians, enemies and tyrants
instead of allies of the other citizens; hating and being hated, plotting
and being plotted against, they will pass their whole life in much greater
terror of internal than of external enemies, and the hour of ruin, both to
themselves and to the rest of the State, will be at hand. For all which
reasons may we not say that thus shall our State be ordered, and that these
shall be the regulations appointed by us for guardians concerning their
houses and all other matters?
Yes, said Glaucon.
The Republic |
