| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Lock and Key Library by Julian Hawthorne, Ed.: thought flashed upon me: was I, in truth, exposed to no danger in
trusting myself to the mercy of the weird and remorseless master of
those hirelings from the East--seven men in number, two at least of
them formidably armed, and docile as bloodhounds to the hunter, who
has only to show them their prey? But fear of man like myself is
not my weakness; where fear found its way to my heart, it was
through the doubts or the fancies in which man like myself
disappeared in the attributes, dark and unknown, which we give to a
fiend or a specter. And, perhaps, if I could have paused to
analyze my own sensations, the very presence of this escort--
creatures of flesh and blood--lessened the dread of my
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Ten Years Later by Alexandre Dumas: about to take the hand which the young nobleman extended to
her, with an eagerness which arose from a variety of
motives, when the admiral intervened between them,
observing; "A moment, if you please, my lord; it is not
possible for ladies to disembark just now, the sea is too
rough; it is probable the wind may abate before sunset, and
the landing will not be effected, therefore, until this
evening."
"Allow me to observe, my lord," said Buckingham, with an
irritation of manner which he did not seek to disguise, "you
detain these ladies, and you have no right to do so. One of
Ten Years Later |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Memorabilia by Xenophon: habit;[9] and surely to this end there is nothing a man in his senses
would not undergo. . . . It is a base thing for a man to wax old in
careless self-neglect before he has lifted up his eyes and seen what
manner of man he was made to be, in the full perfection of bodily
strength and beauty. But these glories are withheld from him who is
guilty of self-neglect, for they are not wont to blaze forth
unbidden.[10]
[7] Cf. "Pol. Ath." i. 13; and above, III. v. 15.
[8] Or, "whole branches of knowledge" ({tas epistemas}).
[9] Or, "he may well hope to be insured by his good habit against the
evils attendant on its opposite."
The Memorabilia |
