| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Mother by Owen Wister: "Ethel," replied Richard, "although I cannot promise that you will be
entirely proud of my conduct when you have heard this episode of my past,
I do say that there is nothing in it to hurt the trust you have placed in
me since I have been your husband. Only," he added, "I hope that I shall
not have to tell any story at all."
"Oh, yes you will!" we all exclaimed together; and the men looked eager
while the women sighed.
The rest of us were much older than Richard, we were middle-aged, in
fact; and human nature is so constructed, that when it is at the age when
making love keeps it busy, it does not care so much to listen to tales of
others' love-making; but the more it recedes from that period of
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from A Journal of the Plague Year by Daniel Defoe: people of this other band went over the fields or roads, path or no
path, way or no way, as they pleased; neither had they any occasion to
pass through any town, or come near any town, other than to buy such
things as they wanted for their necessary subsistence, and in that
indeed they were put to much difficulty; of which in its place.
But our three travellers were obliged to keep the road, or else they
must commit spoil, and do the country a great deal of damage in
breaking down fences and gates to go over enclosed fields, which they
were loth to do if they could help it.
Our three travellers, however, had a great mind to join themselves to
this company and take their lot with them; and after some discourse
A Journal of the Plague Year |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Eryxias by Platonic Imitator: the urbanity of Plato.
Yet there are some points in the argument which are deserving of attention.
(1) That wealth depends upon the need of it or demand for it, is the first
anticipation in an abstract form of one of the great principles of modern
political economy, and the nearest approach to it to be found in an ancient
writer. (2) The resolution of wealth into its simplest implements going on
to infinity is a subtle and refined thought. (3) That wealth is relative
to circumstances is a sound conception. (4) That the arts and sciences
which receive payment are likewise to be comprehended under the notion of
wealth, also touches a question of modern political economy. (5) The
distinction of post hoc and propter hoc, often lost sight of in modern as
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