| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Spirit of the Border by Zane Grey: another word they proceeded to examine the room, by looking into every box,
behind a stone oven, and in the cupboard. They drew the bedclothes from the
bed, and with a kick demolished a pile of stove wood. Then the ruffians passed
into the other apartments, where they could be heard making thorough search.
At length both returned to the large room, when Girty directed Deering to
climb a ladder leading to the loft, but because Deering was too much under the
influence of liquor to do so, he had to go himself. He rummaged around up
there for a few minutes, and then came down.
"Wal, I reckon you wasn't lyin' about it," said Girty, with his ghastly leer.
He and his companion started to go out. Deering had stood with bloodshot eyes
fixed on Nell while Girty searched the loft, and as they passed the girl on
The Spirit of the Border |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from A Sentimental Journey by Laurence Sterne: The genius of a people, where nothing but the monarchy is SALIQUE,
having ceded this department, with sundry others, totally to the
women, - by a continual higgling with customers of all ranks and
sizes from morning to night, like so many rough pebbles shook long
together in a bag, by amicable collisions they have worn down their
asperities and sharp angles, and not only become round and smooth,
but will receive, some of them, a polish like a brilliant: -
Monsieur LE MARI is little better than the stone under your foot.
- Surely, - surely, man! it is not good for thee to sit alone: -
thou wast made for social intercourse and gentle greetings; and
this improvement of our natures from it I appeal to as my evidence.
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Gorgias by Plato: I am making are long enough because you refuse to answer me. But I adjure
you by the god of friendship, my good sir, do tell me whether there does
not appear to you to be a great inconsistency in saying that you have made
a man good, and then blaming him for being bad?
CALLICLES: Yes, it appears so to me.
SOCRATES: Do you never hear our professors of education speaking in this
inconsistent manner?
CALLICLES: Yes, but why talk of men who are good for nothing?
SOCRATES: I would rather say, why talk of men who profess to be rulers,
and declare that they are devoted to the improvement of the city, and
nevertheless upon occasion declaim against the utter vileness of the city:
|
