The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Water-Babies by Charles Kingsley: to see. And the old dame came out too; and when she saw Sir John,
she curtsied very low, for she was a tenant of his.
"Well, dame, and how are you?" said Sir John.
"Blessings on you as broad as your back, Harthover," says she - she
didn't call him Sir John, but only Harthover, for that is the
fashion in the North country - "and welcome into Vendale: but
you're no hunting the fox this time of the year?"
"I am hunting, and strange game too," said he.
"Blessings on your heart, and what makes you look so sad the morn?"
"I'm looking for a lost child, a chimney-sweep, that is run away."
"Oh, Harthover, Harthover," says she, "ye were always a just man
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Hiero by Xenophon: who, when some unfamiliar thing is put before him, will take his fill
of it with pleasure.[31]
[31] {meta kharas}. Cf. Aesch. Fr. 237, {stomatos en prote khara}, of
a hungry man; "Od." xvii. 603.
It looks very much (interposed Simonides) as if the sole pleasure left
you to explain the vulgar ambition to wear a crown, must be that named
after Aphrodite. For in this field it is your privilege to consort
with whatever fairest fair your eyes may light on.
Hiero. Nay, now you have named that one thing of all others, take my
word for it, in which we princes are worse off than lesser people.[32]
[32] Reading {saph' isthi}, or if as Cobet conj. {saphestata}, transl.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Main Street by Sinclair Lewis: young-old mother, moving as though her joints were dry, opens
a suit-case in which are seen creased blouses, a pair of slippers
worn through at the toes, a bottle of patent medicine, a tin
cup, a paper-covered book about dreams which the news-
butcher has coaxed her into buying. She brings out a graham
cracker which she feeds to a baby lying flat on a seat and
wailing hopelessly. Most of the crumbs drop on the red plush
of the seat, and the woman sighs and tries to brush them
away, but they leap up impishly and fall back on the plush.
A soiled man and woman munch sandwiches and throw the
crusts on the floor. A large brick-colored Norwegian takes off
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