| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Twenty Years After by Alexandre Dumas: snare, "how extremely your history interests me! You know
not, then, anything of your birth -- you have never seen
your mother?"
"Yes, my lord; she came three times, whilst I was a child,
to my nurse's house; I remember the last time she came as
well as if it were to-day."
"You have a good memory," said Mazarin.
"Oh! yes, my lord," said the young man, with such peculiar
emphasis that the cardinal felt a shudder run through every
vein.
"And who brought you up?" he asked again.
Twenty Years After |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Protagoras by Plato: the olden time; these are given to the young man, in order to guide him in
his conduct whether he is commanding or obeying; and he who transgresses
them is to be corrected, or, in other words, called to account, which is a
term used not only in your country, but also in many others, seeing that
justice calls men to account. Now when there is all this care about virtue
private and public, why, Socrates, do you still wonder and doubt whether
virtue can be taught? Cease to wonder, for the opposite would be far more
surprising.
But why then do the sons of good fathers often turn out ill? There is
nothing very wonderful in this; for, as I have been saying, the existence
of a state implies that virtue is not any man's private possession. If so
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from At the Earth's Core by Edgar Rice Burroughs: but whither to flee was indeed a momentous question.
The speed of the fellow seemed to preclude the possibility
of escaping him upon the open beach. There was but a
single alternative--the rude skiff--and with a celerity
which equaled his, I pushed the thing into the sea and
as it floated gave a final shove and clambered in over the end.
A cry of rage rose from the owner of the primitive craft,
and an instant later his heavy, stone-tipped spear grazed
my shoulder and buried itself in the bow of the boat beyond.
Then I grasped the paddle, and with feverish haste urged
the awkward, wobbly thing out upon the surface of the sea.
At the Earth's Core |
