| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Ion by Plato: your limbs underneath are shrouded in night; and the voice of lamentation
bursts forth, and your cheeks are wet with tears. And the vestibule is
full, and the court is full, of ghosts descending into the darkness of
Erebus, and the sun has perished out of heaven, and an evil mist is spread
abroad (Od.).'
And there are many such passages in the Iliad also; as for example in the
description of the battle near the rampart, where he says:--
'As they were eager to pass the ditch, there came to them an omen: a
soaring eagle, holding back the people on the left, bore a huge bloody
dragon in his talons, still living and panting; nor had he yet resigned the
strife, for he bent back and smote the bird which carried him on the breast
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The People That Time Forgot by Edgar Rice Burroughs: the outside world again; yet then and there I swore to fight my
way as far through this hideous land as circumstances would permit.
I had plenty of ammunition, an automatic pistol and a heavy rifle--
the latter one of twenty added to our equipment on the strength of
Bowen's description of the huge beasts of prey which ravaged Caspak.
My greatest danger lay in the hideous reptilia whose low nervous
organizations permitted their carnivorous instincts to function
for several minutes after they had ceased to live.
But to these things I gave less thought than to the sudden
frustration of all our plans. With the bitterest of thoughts I
condemned myself for the foolish weakness that had permitted me
The People That Time Forgot |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from All's Well That Ends Well by William Shakespeare: have of late knocked too often at my door. I find my tongue is
too foolhardy; but my heart hath the fear of Mars before it, and
of his creatures, not daring the reports of my tongue.
FIRST LORD. {Aside.]
This is the first truth that e'er thine own tongue was guilty of.
PAROLLES.
What the devil should move me to undertake the recovery of this
drum: being not ignorant of the impossibility, and knowing I had
no such purpose? I must give myself some hurts, and say I got
them in exploit: yet slight ones will not carry it: they will say
Came you off with so little? and great ones I dare not give.
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