| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Barnaby Rudge by Charles Dickens: varied; and with the same soft, courteous, never-changing smile
upon his face. 'I saw him in London last night.'
'He's, for ever, here one hour, and there the next,' returned old
John, after the usual pause to get the question in his mind.
'Sometimes he walks, and sometimes runs. He's known along the road
by everybody, and sometimes comes here in a cart or chaise, and
sometimes riding double. He comes and goes, through wind, rain,
snow, and hail, and on the darkest nights. Nothing hurts HIM.'
'He goes often to the Warren, does he not?' said the guest
carelessly. 'I seem to remember his mother telling me something to
that effect yesterday. But I was not attending to the good woman
Barnaby Rudge |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from An International Episode by Henry James: In one or two places these young ladies were conversing across the street
with other young ladies seated in similar postures and costumes
in front of the opposite houses, and in the warm night air their
colloquial tones sounded strange in the ears of the young Englishmen.
One of our friends, nevertheless--the younger one--intimated that
he felt a disposition to interrupt a few of these soft familiarities;
but his companion observed, pertinently enough, that he had
better be careful. "We must not begin with making mistakes,"
said his companion.
"But he told us, you know--he told us," urged the young man,
alluding again to the friend on the steamer.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Symposium by Plato: moderns as well as the ancients in music, and may be extended to the other
applied sciences. That confusion begins in the concrete, was the natural
feeling of a mind dwelling in the world of ideas. When Pausanias remarks
that personal attachments are inimical to despots. The experience of Greek
history confirms the truth of his remark. When Aristophanes declares that
love is the desire of the whole, he expresses a feeling not unlike that of
the German philosopher, who says that 'philosophy is home sickness.' When
Agathon says that no man 'can be wronged of his own free will,' he is
alluding playfully to a serious problem of Greek philosophy (compare Arist.
Nic. Ethics). So naturally does Plato mingle jest and earnest, truth and
opinion in the same work.
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