| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte: standing by the kitchen-window, but I drew out of sight. He then
stepped across the pavement to her, and said something: she seemed
embarrassed, and desirous of getting away; to prevent it, he laid
his hand on her arm. She averted her face: he apparently put some
question which she had no mind to answer. There was another rapid
glance at the house, and supposing himself unseen, the scoundrel
had the impudence to embrace her.
'Judas! Traitor!' I ejaculated. 'You are a hypocrite, too, are
you? A deliberate deceiver.'
'Who is, Nelly?' said Catherine's voice at my elbow: I had been
over-intent on watching the pair outside to mark her entrance.
Wuthering Heights |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Golden Sayings of Epictetus by Epictetus: unaltered. I give in my adhesion to what I did before; nor has my
mode of dealing with the things of sense undergone any change.
CX
When a friend inclined to Cynic views asked Epictetus, what
sort of person a true Cynic should be, requesting a general
sketch of the system, he answered:--"We will consider that at
leisure. At present I content myself with saying this much: If a
man put his hand to so weighty a matter without God, the wrath of
God abides upon him. That which he covets will but bring upon him
public shame. Not even on finding himself in a well-ordered house
does a man step forward and say to himself, I must be master
The Golden Sayings of Epictetus |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Apology by Xenophon: opinion which my friends and intimates have formed concerning me.[11]
And now if my age is still to be prolonged,[12] I know that I cannot
escape paying[13] the penalty of old age, in increasing dimness of
sight and dulness of hearing. I shall find myself slower to learn new
lessons, and apter to forget the lessons I have learnt. And if to
these be added the consciousness of failing powers, the sting of self-
reproach, what prospect have I of any further joy in living? It may
be, you know," he added, "that God out of his great kindness is
intervening in my behalf[14] to suffer me to close my life in the
ripeness of age, and by the gentlest of deaths. For if at this time
sentence of death be passed upon me, it is plain I shall be allowed to
The Apology |
