| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Frankenstein by Mary Shelley: which I had not yet fulfilled and dared not break, or if I did,
what manifold miseries might not impend over me and my devoted family!
Could I enter into a festival with this deadly weight yet hanging
round my neck and bowing me to the ground? I must perform my
engagement and let the monster depart with his mate before I
allowed myself to enjoy the delight of a union from which I
expected peace.
I remembered also the necessity imposed upon me of either
journeying to England or entering into a long correspondence
with those philosophers of that country whose knowledge and
discoveries were of indispensable use to me in my present undertaking.
Frankenstein |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from A Voyage to Abyssinia by Father Lobo: of Tigre, at the command of the Emperor himself. The commission was
directed to me, nor did I ever receive one that was more welcome on
many accounts. I had contracted an intimate friendship with the
Count de Vidigueira, viceroy of the Indies, and had been desired by
him, when I took my leave of him, upon going to Melinda, to inform
myself where his relation was buried, and to send him some of his
relics.
The viceroy, son-in-law to the Emperor, with whom I was joined in
the commission, gave me many distinguishing proofs of his affection
to me, and of his zeal for the Catholic religion. It was a journey
of fifteen days through part of the country possessed by the Galles,
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Menexenus by Plato: might make a figure if he were to praise the Athenians among the Athenians.
MENEXENUS: And what would you be able to say if you had to speak?
SOCRATES: Of my own wit, most likely nothing; but yesterday I heard
Aspasia composing a funeral oration about these very dead. For she had
been told, as you were saying, that the Athenians were going to choose a
speaker, and she repeated to me the sort of speech which he should deliver,
partly improvising and partly from previous thought, putting together
fragments of the funeral oration which Pericles spoke, but which, as I
believe, she composed.
MENEXENUS: And can you remember what Aspasia said?
SOCRATES: I ought to be able, for she taught me, and she was ready to
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