| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Hellenica by Xenophon: respectable people in their lives, simply because they had enjoyed
influence and honour under the democracy. "Why, you and I, Critias,"
he would add, "have said and done many things ere now for the sake of
popularity." To which the other (for the terms of friendly intimacy
still subsisted) would retort, "There is no choice left to us, since
we intend to take the lion's share, but to get rid of those who are
best able to hinder us. If you imagine, because we are thirty instead
of one, our government requires one whit the less careful guarding
than an actual tyranny, you must be very innocent."
So things went on. Day after day the list of persons put to death for
no just reason grew longer. Day after day the signs of resentment were
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Dark Lady of the Sonnets by George Bernard Shaw: reveal. It is heresy to deny it: have you not been taught that in
the beginning was the Word? that the Word was with God? nay, that the
Word was God?
THE LADY. Beware, fellow, how you presume to speak of holy things.
The Queen is the head of the Church.
THE MAN. You are the head of my Church when you speak as you did at
first. "All the perfumes of Arabia"! Can the Queen speak thus? They
say she playeth well upon the virginals. Let her play so to me; and
I'll kiss her hands. But until then, you are my Queen; and I'll kiss
those lips that have dropt music on my heart. _[He puts his arms
abont her]._
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Tales of Unrest by Joseph Conrad: wondered, he could not believe, he could not understand, he clamoured
in his own tongue! She had her arms clasped round his neck, and over
her shoulder stared back at me with wide eyes. I smiled and looked at
her; I smiled and waited to hear the sound of her voice. The white man
asked her suddenly. 'Do you know him?' I listened--my life was in my
ears! She looked at me long, she looked at me with unflinching eyes,
and said aloud, 'No! I never saw him before.' . . . What! Never
before? Had she forgotten already? Was it possible? Forgotten already
--after so many years--so many years of wandering, of companionship,
of trouble, of tender words! Forgotten already! . . . I tore myself
out from the hands that held me and went away without a word . . .
Tales of Unrest |
