| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Symposium by Xenophon: become the lover of to-day. Ay, and Niceratus, as I am told, adores
his wife, and is by her adored.[9] As to Hermogenes, which of us needs
to be told[10] that the soul of this fond lover is consumed with
passion for a fair ideal--call it by what name you will--the spirit
blent of nobleness and beauty.[11] See you not what chaste severity
dwells on his brow;[12] how tranquil his gaze;[13] how moderate his
words; how gentle his intonation; now radiant his whole character. And
if he enjoys the friendship of the most holy gods, he keeps a place in
his regard for us poor mortals. But how is it that you alone,
Antisthenes, you misanthrope, love nobody?
[3] Cf. Shelley, "Hymn to Intellectual Beauty":
The Symposium |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Psychology of Revolution by Gustave le Bon: people only, but also of the revolutionary Assemblies with regard
to the monarchy, underwent a very rapid change. Between the
moment when the legislators of the first Assembly surrounded
Louis XVI. with respect and the moment when his head was cut off
a very few years had elapsed.
These changes, superficial rather than profound, were in reality
a mere transposition of sentiments of the same order. The love
which the men of this period professed for the king was
transferred to the new Government which had inherited his power.
The mechanism of such a transfer may easily be demonstrated.
Under the ancien regime, the sovereign, holding his power by
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Desert Gold by Zane Grey: life seemingly would not leave his bullet-pierced body. He faded,
withered, shrunk till he was almost a skeleton. He knew those who
worked and watched over him, but he had no power of speech. His
eyes and eyelids moved; the rest of him seemed stone. All those
days nothing except water was given him. It was marvelous how
tenaciously, however feebly, he clung to life. Gale imagined it was
the Yaqui's spirit that held back death. That tireless, implacable,
inscrutable savage was ever at the ranger's side. His great somber
eyes burned. At length he went to Gale, and, with that strange light
flitting across the hard bronzed face, he said Ladd would live.
The second day after Ladd had been given such thin nourishment as
Desert Gold |
