| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Taras Bulba and Other Tales by Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol: children, the mother loves her children, the children love their
father and mother; but this is not like that, brothers. The wild beast
also loves its young. But a man can be related only by similarity of
mind and not of blood. There have been brotherhoods in other lands,
but never any such brotherhoods as on our Russian soil. It has
happened to many of you to be in foreign lands. You look: there are
people there also, God's creatures, too; and you talk with them as
with the men of your own country. But when it comes to saying a hearty
word--you will see. No! they are sensible people, but not the same;
the same kind of people, and yet not the same! No, brothers, to love
as the Russian soul loves, is to love not with the mind or anything
Taras Bulba and Other Tales |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from On Horsemanship by Xenophon: body grows uniformly up to these, until it has attained its proper
symmetry.
[32] Cf. Aristot. "de Part. Anim." iv. 10; "H. A." ii. 1; Plin. "N.
H." xi. 108.
Such is the type[33] of colt and such the tests to be applied, with
every prospect of getting a sound-footed, strong, and fleshy animal
fine of form and large of stature. If changes in some instances
develop during growth, that need not prevent us from applying our
tests in confidence. It far more often happens that an ugly-looking
colt will turn out serviceable,[34] than that a foal of the above
description will turn out ugly or defective.
On Horsemanship |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Iliad by Homer: circles of the sheltering shield. Aeneas though he had avoided
the spear, stood still, blinded with fear and grief because the
weapon had gone so near him; then Achilles sprang furiously upon
him, with a cry as of death and with his keen blade drawn, and
Aeneas seized a great stone, so huge that two men, as men now
are, would be unable to lift it, but Aeneas wielded it quite
easily.
Aeneas would then have struck Achilles as he was springing
towards him, either on the helmet, or on the shield that covered
him, and Achilles would have closed with him and despatched him
with his sword, had not Neptune lord of the earthquake been quick
The Iliad |
