| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Amy Foster by Joseph Conrad: almost directly, a sharp corner into the High
Street, we rattled over the stones and were home.
Late in the evening Kennedy, breaking a spell
of moodiness that had come over him, returned to
the story. Smoking his pipe, he paced the long
room from end to end. A reading-lamp concen-
trated all its light upon the papers on his desk;
and, sitting by the open window, I saw, after the
windless, scorching day, the frigid splendour of a
hazy sea lying motionless under the moon. Not a
whisper, not a splash, not a stir of the shingle, not
Amy Foster |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Statesman by Plato: aware of the imperfection of law in failing to meet the varieties of
circumstances: he is also aware that human life would be intolerable if
every detail of it were placed under legal regulation. It may be a great
evil that physicians should kill their patients or captains cast away their
ships, but it would be a far greater evil if each particular in the
practice of medicine or seamanship were regulated by law. Much has been
said in modern times about the duty of leaving men to themselves, which is
supposed to be the best way of taking care of them. The question is often
asked, What are the limits of legislation in relation to morals? And the
answer is to the same effect, that morals must take care of themselves.
There is a one-sided truth in these answers, if they are regarded as
Statesman |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The School For Scandal by Richard Brinsley Sheridan: and threaten'd to acquaint Sir Peter with her suspicions--and I was
just endeavouring to reason with her when you came.
LADY TEAZLE. Indeed but you seem'd to adopt--a very tender mode
of reasoning--do you usually argue on your knees?
SURFACE. O she's a Child--and I thought a little Bombast----
but Lady Teazle when are you to give me your judgment on my Library
as you promised----
LADY TEAZLE. No--no I begin to think it would be imprudent--
and you know I admit you as a Lover no farther than Fashion requires.
SURFACE. True--a mere Platonic Cicisbeo, what every London wife
is entitled to.
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