| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde: out that question to his audience. It struck me as being rather dramatic.
London is very rich in curious effects of that kind. A wet Sunday,
an uncouth Christian in a mackintosh, a ring of sickly white faces under
a broken roof of dripping umbrellas, and a wonderful phrase flung into
the air by shrill hysterical lips--it was really very good in its way,
quite a suggestion. I thought of telling the prophet that art had
a soul, but that man had not. I am afraid, however, he would not have
understood me."
"Don't, Harry. The soul is a terrible reality. It can be bought,
and sold, and bartered away. It can be poisoned, or made perfect.
There is a soul in each one of us. I know it."
The Picture of Dorian Gray |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Almayer's Folly by Joseph Conrad: "Well, Mr. Almayer, will you answer my question as frankly as it
is put to you?" asked the lieutenant, after a long silence.
Almayer turned round and looked at his interlocutor steadily.
"If you catch this Dain what will you do with him?" he asked.
The officer's face flushed. "This is not an answer," he said,
annoyed.
"And what will you do with me?" went on Almayer, not heeding the
interruption.
"Are you inclined to bargain?" growled the other. "It would be
bad policy, I assure you. At present I have no orders about your
person, but we expected your assistance in catching this Malay."
Almayer's Folly |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Crito by Plato: always have been one of those natures who must be guided by reason,
whatever the reason may be which upon reflection appears to me to be the
best; and now that this chance has befallen me, I cannot repudiate my own
words: the principles which I have hitherto honoured and revered I still
honour, and unless we can at once find other and better principles, I am
certain not to agree with you; no, not even if the power of the multitude
could inflict many more imprisonments, confiscations, deaths, frightening
us like children with hobgoblin terrors (compare Apol.). What will be the
fairest way of considering the question? Shall I return to your old
argument about the opinions of men?--we were saying that some of them are
to be regarded, and others not. Now were we right in maintaining this
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