| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Elizabeth and her German Garden by Marie Annette Beauchamp: printing by several publishers over the next few years.
(I myself own three separate early editions of this book
by different publishers on both sides of the Atlantic.)
The present Gutenberg edition was scanned from the illustrated
deluxe MacMillan (London) edition of 1900.
Elizabeth was a cousin of the better-known writer
Katherine Mansfield (whose real name was Kathleen Mansfield
Beauchamp). Born in Australia, Elizabeth was educated in England.
She was reputed to be a fine organist and musician.
At a young age, she captured the heart of a German Count,
was persuaded to marry him, and went to live in Germany.
Elizabeth and her German Garden |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Philebus by Plato: renounce the claim to the first place. But mind is ten thousand times
nearer to the chief good than pleasure. Pleasure ranks fifth and not
first, even though all the animals in the world assert the contrary.
...
From the days of Aristippus and Epicurus to our own times the nature of
pleasure has occupied the attention of philosophers. 'Is pleasure an evil?
a good? the only good?' are the simple forms which the enquiry assumed
among the Socratic schools. But at an early stage of the controversy
another question was asked: 'Do pleasures differ in kind? and are some
bad, some good, and some neither bad nor good?' There are bodily and there
are mental pleasures, which were at first confused but afterwards
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne: spire had attracted the Professor's attention. Starting from the top
of the tower, an external staircase wound around the spire, the
spirals circling up into the sky.
"Let us get to the top," said my uncle.
"I shall be dizzy," I said.
"The more reason why we should go up; we must get used to it."
"But -"
"Come, I tell you; don't waste our time."
I had to obey. A keeper who lived at the other end of the street
handed us the key, and the ascent began.
My uncle went ahead with a light step. I followed him not without
Journey to the Center of the Earth |
