| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte: of dark and coarse drapery. The marble basin was removed; in its
place, stood a deal table and a kitchen chair: these objects were
visible by a very dim light proceeding from a horn lantern, the wax
candles being all extinguished.
Amidst this sordid scene, sat a man with his clenched hands resting
on his knees, and his eyes bent on the ground. I knew Mr.
Rochester; though the begrimed face, the disordered dress (his coat
hanging loose from one arm, as if it had been almost torn from his
back in a scuffle), the desperate and scowling countenance, the
rough, bristling hair might well have disguised him. As he moved, a
chain clanked; to his wrists were attached fetters.
Jane Eyre |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Sophist by Plato: for them, that being is the power of doing or suffering. Then we turn to
the friends of ideas: to them we say, 'You distinguish becoming from
being?' 'Yes,' they will reply. 'And in becoming you participate through
the bodily senses, and in being, by thought and the mind?' 'Yes.' And you
mean by the word 'participation' a power of doing or suffering? To this
they answer--I am acquainted with them, Theaetetus, and know their ways
better than you do--that being can neither do nor suffer, though becoming
may. And we rejoin: Does not the soul know? And is not 'being' known?
And are not 'knowing' and 'being known' active and passive? That which is
known is affected by knowledge, and therefore is in motion. And, indeed,
how can we imagine that perfect being is a mere everlasting form, devoid of
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Voyage of the Beagle by Charles Darwin: idea of being thrown, let the horse do what it likes; never
enters their head. Their criterion of a good rider is, a man
who can manage an untamed colt, or who, if his horse falls,
alights on his own feet, or can perform other such exploits.
I have heard of a man betting that he would throw his horse
down twenty times, and that nineteen times he would not
fall himself. I recollect seeing a Gaucho riding a very
stubborn horse, which three times successively reared so
high as to fall backwards with great violence. The man
judged with uncommon coolness the proper moment for
slipping off, not an instant before or after the right time;
The Voyage of the Beagle |
