| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Underground City by Jules Verne: familiar to all the members of the Ford family, but more particularly
to Harry. He learnt to know all its most secret ins and outs.
He could even say what point of the surface corresponded with what point
of the mine. He knew that above this seam lay the Firth of Clyde,
that there extended Loch Lomond and Loch Katrine. Those columns supported
a spur of the Grampian mountains. This vault served as a basement
to Dumbarton. Above this large pond passed the Balloch railway.
Here ended the Scottish coast. There began the sea, the tumult
of which could be distinctly heard during the equinoctial gales.
Harry would have been a first-rate guide to these natural catacombs,
and all that Alpine guides do on their snowy peaks in daylight he could
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Lysis by Plato: poem in which he described the entertainment of Heracles, who was a
connexion of the family, setting forth how in virtue of this relationship
he was hospitably received by an ancestor of Lysis; this ancestor was
himself begotten of Zeus by the daughter of the founder of the deme. And
these are the sort of old wives' tales which he sings and recites to us,
and we are obliged to listen to him.
When I heard this, I said: O ridiculous Hippothales! how can you be making
and singing hymns in honour of yourself before you have won?
But my songs and verses, he said, are not in honour of myself, Socrates.
You think not? I said.
Nay, but what do you think? he replied.
Lysis |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from On Horsemanship by Xenophon: in Corinth. He died in 354 B.C.
On Horsemanship advises the reader on how to buy
a good horse, and how to raise it to be either a
war horse or show horse. Xenophon ends with some
words on military equipment for a cavalryman.
PREPARER'S NOTE
This was typed from Dakyns' series, "The Works of Xenophon," a
four-volume set. The complete list of Xenophon's works (though
there is doubt about some of these) is:
Work Number of books
The Anabasis 7
On Horsemanship |
