| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Some Reminiscences by Joseph Conrad: did not want the dog of the general's daughter to fight again
(encore) with the faithful dog of my infant son (mon petit
garcon).--Was I afraid that the dog of the general's daughter
would be able to overcome (vaincre) the dog of my child?--No, I
was not afraid. . .But away with the Ollendorff method. However
appropriate and seemingly unavoidable when I touch upon anything
appertaining to the lady, it is most unsuitable to the origin,
character and history of the dog; for the dog was the gift to the
child from a man for whom words had anything but an Ollendorffian
value, a man almost childlike in the impulsive movements of his
untutored genius, the most single-minded of verbal
 Some Reminiscences |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Research Magnificent by H. G. Wells: come too much to London, and when I do, you can get out of town.
You must be discreet about Easton, and if people say anything about
him, send them to me. After all, this is our private affair.
"We'll go on about money matters as we have been going. I trust to
you not to run me into overwhelming debts. And, of course, if at
any time, you do want to marry--on account of children or anything--
if nobody knows of this conversation we can be divorced then. . . ."
Benham threw out these decisions in little dry sentences while
Amanda gathered her forces for her last appeal.
It was an unsuccessful appeal, and at the end she flung herself down
before him and clung to his knees. He struggled ridiculously to get
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Lysis by Plato: a new question: 'What is friendship? You, Menexenus, who have a friend
already, can tell me, who am always longing to find one, what is the secret
of this great blessing.'
When one man loves another, which is the friend--he who loves, or he who is
loved? Or are both friends? From the first of these suppositions they are
driven to the second; and from the second to the third; and neither the two
boys nor Socrates are satisfied with any of the three or with all of them.
Socrates turns to the poets, who affirm that God brings like to like
(Homer), and to philosophers (Empedocles), who also assert that like is the
friend of like. But the bad are not friends, for they are not even like
themselves, and still less are they like one another. And the good have no
 Lysis |