| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Almayer's Folly by Joseph Conrad: of his black silk jacket, broke in a thousand sparkling rays on
the jewelled hilt of his kriss protruding from under the many
folds of the red sarong gathered into a sash round his waist, and
played on the precious stones of the many rings on his dark
fingers. He straightened himself up quickly after the low bow,
putting his hand with a graceful ease on the hilt of his heavy
short sword ornamented with brilliantly dyed fringes of
horsehair. Nina, hesitating on the threshold, saw an erect lithe
figure of medium height with a breadth of shoulder suggesting
great power. Under the folds of a blue turban, whose fringed
ends hung gracefully over the left shoulder, was a face full of
Almayer's Folly |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Democracy In America, Volume 1 by Alexis de Toqueville: class of citizens. When a democratic republic renders offices
which had formerly been remunerated gratuitous, it may safely be
believed that the State is advancing to monarchical institutions;
and when a monarchy begins to remunerate such officers as had
hitherto been unpaid, it is a sure sign that it is approaching
toward a despotic or a republican form of government. The
substitution of paid for unpaid functionaries is of itself, in my
opinion, sufficient to constitute a serious revolution.
I look upon the entire absence of gratuitous functionaries
in America as one of the most prominent signs of the absolute
dominion which democracy exercises in that country. All public
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Symposium by Xenophon: convert the idol of his soul into a good man and true friend is this:
necessity is laid upon himself to practise virtue; since how can he
hope to make his comrade good, if he himself works wickedness? Is it
conceivable that the example he himself presents of what is shameless
and incontinent,[53] will serve to make the beloved one temperate and
modest?
[52] Or, "that by largess of beauty he can enthrall his lover."
[53] See Plat. "Symp." 182 A, 192 A.
I have a longing, Callias, by mythic argument[54] to show you that not
men only, but gods and heroes, set greater store by friendship of the
soul than bodily enjoyment. Thus those fair women[55] whom Zeus,
The Symposium |
