| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Republic by Plato: Then, although we are admirers of Homer, we do not admire the lying dream
which Zeus sends to Agamemnon; neither will we praise the verses of
Aeschylus in which Thetis says that Apollo at her nuptials
'Was celebrating in song her fair progeny whose days were to be long, and
to know no sickness. And when he had spoken of my lot as in all things
blessed of heaven he raised a note of triumph and cheered my soul. And I
thought that the word of Phoebus, being divine and full of prophecy, would
not fail. And now he himself who uttered the strain, he who was present at
the banquet, and who said this--he it is who has slain my son.'
These are the kind of sentiments about the gods which will arouse our
anger; and he who utters them shall be refused a chorus; neither shall we
The Republic |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Story of an African Farm by Olive Schreiner: "It is a beautiful secret," said Em; and the boy shuffled out to pick up
his skins.
That evening father and son sat in the cabin eating their supper. The
father sighed deeply sometimes. Perhaps he thought how long a time it was
since Bonaparte had visited the cabin; but his son was in that land in
which sighs have no part. It is a question whether it were not better to
be the shabbiest of fools, and know the way up the little stair of
imagination to the land of dreams, than the wisest of men, who see nothing
that the eyes do not show, and feel nothing that the hands do not touch.
The boy chewed his brown bread and drank his coffee; but in truth he saw
only his machine finished--that last something found out and added. He saw
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Dawn O'Hara, The Girl Who Laughed by Edna Ferber: At this point in my musings there was an end
of the low-voiced conversation in the hall. Sis tiptoed
in and looked her disapproval at finding me sleepless.
"Dawn, old girlie, this will never do. Shut your
eyes now, like a good child, and go to sleep. Guess what
that great brute of a doctor said! I may take you home
with me next week! Dawn dear, you will come, won't you?
You must! This is killing you. Don't make me go away
leaving you here. I couldn't stand it."
She leaned over my pillow and closed my eyelids
gently with her sweet, cool fingers. "You are coming
|
