| The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Montezuma's Daughter by H. Rider Haggard: wolves upon their master when his scourge is broken. It was this
that brought about the fall of Anahuac. Had she remained true to
herself, had she forgotten her feuds and jealousies and stood
against the Spaniards as one man, then Tenoctitlan would never have
fallen, and Cortes with every Teule in his company had been
stretched upon the stone of sacrifice.
Did I not say when I took up my pen to write this book that every
wrong revenges itself at last upon the man or the people that
wrought it? So it was now. Mexico was destroyed because of the
abomination of the worship of her gods. These feuds between the
allied peoples had their root in the horrible rites of human
Montezuma's Daughter |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Charmides by Plato: almost all young persons appear to be beautiful in my eyes. But at that
moment, when I saw him coming in, I confess that I was quite astonished at
his beauty and stature; all the world seemed to be enamoured of him;
amazement and confusion reigned when he entered; and a troop of lovers
followed him. That grown-up men like ourselves should have been affected
in this way was not surprising, but I observed that there was the same
feeling among the boys; all of them, down to the very least child, turned
and looked at him, as if he had been a statue.
Chaerephon called me and said: What do you think of him, Socrates? Has he
not a beautiful face?
Most beautiful, I said.
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