| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Herodias by Gustave Flaubert: next movement. But the death that night of some conspicuous man that
had been predicted to him by Phanuel,--what if, by bringing it upon
another, he could avert it from himself, thought Antipas. If Iaokanann
was in very truth the Elias so much talked of, he would have power to
protect himself; and if he were only an ordinary man, his murder was
of no importance.
Mannaeus stood beside his chair, and read his master's thoughts.
Vitellius beckoned him to his side and gave him an order for the
execution, to be transmitted to the soldiers placed on guard over the
dungeon. This execution would be a relief, he thought. In a few
moments all would be over!
Herodias |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Emma McChesney & Co. by Edna Ferber: that, on the final day, Emma felt a sinking at her heart. He
seemed so satisfied with affairs as they were. He was,
apparently, so content to drop all thought of business when he
left the office for his home.
Emma had planned a very special little dinner that evening. She
wore a very special gown, too--one of the new ones. T. A.
noticed it at once, and the dinner as well, being that kind of
husband. Still, Annie, the cook, complained later, to the
parlor-maid, about the thanklessness of cooking dinners for folks
who didn't eat more'n a mouthful, anyway.
Dinner over,
Emma McChesney & Co. |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Eryxias by Platonic Imitator: CRITIAS: We may fairly suppose such to be the case.
SOCRATES: And if a man has food and drink and clothes and the other things
which are useful to the body, would he need gold or silver or any other
means by which he could procure that which he now has?
CRITIAS: I do not think so.
SOCRATES: Then you consider that a man never wants any of these things for
the use of the body?
CRITIAS: Certainly not.
SOCRATES: And if they appear useless to this end, ought they not always to
appear useless? For we have already laid down the principle that things
cannot be at one time useful and at another time not, in the same process.
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