| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Touchstone by Edith Wharton: near loving her; though even then his sentiment had lived only in
the intervals of its expression. Later, when to be loved by her
had been a state to touch any man's imagination, the physical
reluctance had, inexplicably, so overborne the intellectual
attraction, that the last years had been, to both of them, an
agony of conflicting impulses. Even now, if, in turning over old
papers, his hand lit on her letters, the touch filled him with
inarticulate misery. . . .
"She had so few intimate friends . . . that letters will be of
special value." So few intimate friends! For years she had had
but one; one who in the last years had requited her wonderful
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Apology by Xenophon: See Cobet, "Pros. Xen." s.n.; cf. Plat. "Symp." 173; "Phaed." 54
A, 117 D; Aelian, "V. H." i. 16; Heges. "Delph." ap. Athen. xi.
507.
[53] Diog. Laert. ii. 5. 35, ascribes the remark to Xanthippe, and so
Val. Max. 7. 2, Ext. 1.
Whereupon Socrates, it is said, gently stroked the young man's head:
"Would you have been better pleased, my dear one, to see me put to
death for some just reason rather than unjustly?" and as he spoke he
smiled tenderly.[54]
[54] See Plat. "Phaed." 89 B, where a similar action is attributed to
Socrates in the case of Phaedo (his beloved disciple). "He stroked
The Apology |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen: Charlotte again, and weakened her disgust of Mr. Collins. There
was novelty in the scheme, and as, with such a mother and such
uncompanionable sisters, home could not be faultless, a little
change was not unwelcome for its own sake. The journey
would moreover give her a peep at Jane; and, in short, as the
time drew near, she would have been very sorry for any delay.
Everything, however, went on smoothly, and was finally settled
according to Charlotte's first sketch. She was to accompany Sir
William and his second daughter. The improvement of spending
a night in London was added in time, and the plan became
perfect as plan could be.
Pride and Prejudice |
