| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Life of the Spider by J. Henri Fabre: textile materials that remove all fears of landslip, the Lycosa
delights in tall turrets. She understands the art of donjon-
building and puts it into practice as often as she possesses the
means.
This art is akin to another, from which it is apparently derived.
If the sun be fierce or if rain threaten, the Lycosa closes the
entrance to her dwelling with a silken trellis-work, wherein she
embeds different matters, often the remnants of victims which she
has devoured. The ancient Gael nailed the heads of his vanquished
enemies to the door of his hut. In the same way, the fierce Spider
sticks the skulls of her prey into the lid of her cave. These
The Life of the Spider |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Madam How and Lady Why by Charles Kingsley: pumps, she shows herself delicate and tender and kindly enough in
giving them away afterwards.
Nay, even the fine dust which is sometimes blown out of volcanos
is useful to countries far away. So light it is, that it rises
into the sky and is wafted by the wind across the seas. So, in
the year 1783, ashes from the Skaptar Jokull, in Iceland, were
carried over the north of Scotland, and even into Holland,
hundreds of miles to the south.
So, again, when in the year 1812 the volcano of St. Vincent, in
the West India Islands, poured out torrents of lava, after mighty
earthquakes which shook all that part of the world, a strange
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Eryxias by Platonic Imitator: opinion that things which are useless to us are not wealth, and that the
money which is useful for this purpose is of the greatest use; not that
these things are not useful towards life, if by them we can procure wealth.
SOCRATES: And how would you answer another question? There are persons,
are there not, who teach music and grammar and other arts for pay, and thus
procure those things of which they stand in need?
ERYXIAS: There are.
SOCRATES: And these men by the arts which they profess, and in exchange
for them, obtain the necessities of life just as we do by means of gold and
silver?
ERYXIAS: True.
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