| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Weir of Hermiston by Robert Louis Stevenson: lie at a guest's mercy was what he refused. He hated to seem harsh.
But that was Frank's lookout. If Frank had been commonly discreet, he
would have been decently courteous. And there was another
consideration. The secret he was protecting was not his own merely; it
was hers: it belonged to that inexpressible she who was fast taking
possession of his soul, and whom he would soon have defended at the cost
of burning cities. By the time he had watched Frank as far as the
Swingleburn-foot, appearing and disappearing in the tarnished heather,
still stalking at a fierce gait but already dwindled in the distance
into less than the smallness of Lilliput, he could afford to smile at
the occurrence. Either Frank would go, and that would be a relief - or
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Ebb-Tide by Stevenson & Osbourne: 'That's it!' cried Davis. 'How to get hold of him! They're four
to two; though there's only one man among them to count, and
that's Attwater. Get a bead on Attwater, and the others would
cut and run and sing out like frightened poultry--and old man
Herrick would come round with his hat for a share of the pearls.
No, SIR! it's how to get hold of Attwater! And we daren't even
go ashore; he would shoot us in the boat like dogs.'
'Are you particular about having him dead or alive?' asked
Huish.
'I want to see him dead,' said the captain.
'Ah, well!' said Huish, 'then I believe I'll do a bit of
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Symposium by Xenophon: conceivable that the example he himself presents of what is shameless
and incontinent,[53] will serve to make the beloved one temperate and
modest?
[52] Or, "that by largess of beauty he can enthrall his lover."
[53] See Plat. "Symp." 182 A, 192 A.
I have a longing, Callias, by mythic argument[54] to show you that not
men only, but gods and heroes, set greater store by friendship of the
soul than bodily enjoyment. Thus those fair women[55] whom Zeus,
enamoured of their outward beauty, wedded, he permitted mortal to
remain; but those heroes whose souls he held in admiration, these he
raised to immortality. Of whom are Heracles and the Dioscuri, and
The Symposium |
