| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Lady Susan by Jane Austen: very soon.
Yours, &c.,
S. VERNON.
XI
MRS. VERNON TO LADY DE COURCY
Churchhill
I really grow quite uneasy, my dearest mother, about Reginald, from
witnessing the very rapid increase of Lady Susan's influence. They are now
on terms of the most particular friendship, frequently engaged in long
conversations together; and she has contrived by the most artful coquetry
to subdue his judgment to her own purposes. It is impossible to see the
Lady Susan |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Statesman by Plato: opposites; and to have another part in which they are measured with the
mean, and the fit, and the opportune, and the due, and with all those
words, in short, which denote a mean or standard removed from the extremes.
YOUNG SOCRATES: Here are two vast divisions, embracing two very different
spheres.
STRANGER: There are many accomplished men, Socrates, who say, believing
themselves to speak wisely, that the art of measurement is universal, and
has to do with all things. And this means what we are now saying; for all
things which come within the province of art do certainly in some sense
partake of measure. But these persons, because they are not accustomed to
distinguish classes according to real forms, jumble together two widely
Statesman |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Little Rivers by Henry van Dyke: The alarm-clock is ringing fiercely for three o'clock. A driving
snow-storm is beating against the window. The ground is white.
Peer through the clouds as I may, I cannot even catch a glimpse of
the vanished Gross-Venediger.
1892.
AU LARGE
Wherever we strayed, the same tranquil leisure enfolded us; day
followed day in an order unbroken and peaceful as the unfolding of
the flowers and the silent march of the stars. Time no longer ran
like the few sands in a delicate hour-glass held by a fragile human
hand, but like a majestic river fed by fathomless seas. . . . We
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