| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe: the late escape from the longboats, to have been in the most
dangerous condition that ever I was in through my past life; for
whatever ill circumstances I had been in, I was never pursued for a
thief before; nor had I ever done anything that merited the name of
dishonest or fraudulent, much less thievish. I had chiefly been my
own enemy, or, as I may rightly say, I had been nobody's enemy but
my own; but now I was woefully embarrassed: for though I was
perfectly innocent, I was in no condition to make that innocence
appear; and if I had been taken, it had been under a supposed guilt
of the worst kind. This made me very anxious to make an escape,
though which way to do it I knew not, or what port or place we
Robinson Crusoe |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Wyoming by William MacLeod Raine: deserted miner's cabin.
The hut sat on the edge of a bluff that commanded a view of the
buildings below, while at the same time the pines that surrounded
it screened the shack from any casual observation. A thin curl of
smoke was rising from the mud chimney, and inside the cabin two
men lounged before the open fire.
"It's his move, and he is going to make it soon. Every night I
look for him to drop down on the ranch. His hate's kind of
volcanic, Mr. Ned Bannister's is, and it's bound to bubble over
mighty sudden one of these days," said the younger of the two,
rising and stretching himself.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Alcibiades II by Platonic Imitator: any one else's mother, but only his own?
ALCIBIADES: True.
SOCRATES: Ignorance, then, is better for those who are in such a frame of
mind, and have such ideas?
ALCIBIADES: Obviously.
SOCRATES: You acknowledge that for some persons in certain cases the
ignorance of some things is a good and not an evil, as you formerly
supposed?
ALCIBIADES: I do.
SOCRATES: And there is still another case which will also perhaps appear
strange to you, if you will consider it? (The reading is here uncertain.)
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