| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Salammbo by Gustave Flaubert: torches which crackled in the darkness, were pawing the ground; the
human spectre struggled and howled:
"They have killed them!"
At these words, which were screamed in Balearic, some Balearians came
up and recognised him; without answering them he repeated:
"Yes, all killed, all! crushed like grapes! The fine young men! the
slingers! my companions and yours!"
They gave him wine to drink, and he wept; then he launched forth into
speech.
Spendius could scarcely repress his joy, as he explained the horrors
related by Zarxas to the Greeks and Libyans; he could not believe
Salammbo |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe: Had I now had the sense to have gone back to Hull, and have gone
home, I had been happy, and my father, as in our blessed Saviour's
parable, had even killed the fatted calf for me; for hearing the
ship I went away in was cast away in Yarmouth Roads, it was a great
while before he had any assurances that I was not drowned.
But my ill fate pushed me on now with an obstinacy that nothing
could resist; and though I had several times loud calls from my
reason and my more composed judgment to go home, yet I had no power
to do it. I know not what to call this, nor will I urge that it is
a secret overruling decree, that hurries us on to be the
instruments of our own destruction, even though it be before us,
Robinson Crusoe |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Hellenica by Xenophon: 58; Herod. vii. 158; Caes. "B. G." i. 48; "B. Civ." iii. 84.
But after he himself had fallen, the rest of the Thebans were not able
any longer to turn their victory rightly to account. Though the main
battle line of their opponents had given way, not a single man
afterwards did the victorious hoplites slay, not an inch forward did
they advance from the ground on which the collision took place. Though
the cavalry had fled before them, there was no pursuit; not a man,
horseman or hoplite, did the conquering cavalry cut down; but, like
men who have suffered a defeat, as if panic-stricken[15] they slipped
back through the ranks of the fleeing foemen. Only the footmen
fighting amongst the cavalry and the light infantry, who had together
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