| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Odyssey by Homer: perish here, far from his own people, but shall return to his
house and country and see his friends again."
Calypso trembled with rage when she heard this, "You gods," she
exclaimed, "ought to be ashamed of yourselves. You are always
jealous and hate seeing a goddess take a fancy to a mortal man,
and live with him in open matrimony. So when rosy-fingered Dawn
made love to Orion, you precious gods were all of you furious
till Diana went and killed him in Ortygia. So again when Ceres
fell in love with Iasion, and yielded to him in a
thrice-ploughed fallow field, Jove came to hear of it before so
very long and killed Iasion with his thunderbolts. And now you
The Odyssey |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Bureaucracy by Honore de Balzac: satisfied with his lot, he applied himself faithfully to serve the
government, believed he was useful to his country, and boasted of his
indifference to politics, knowing none but those of the men in power.
Monsieur Rabourdin pleased him highly whenever he asked him to stay
half an hour longer to finish a piece of work. On such occasions he
would say, when he reached home, "Public affairs detained me; when a
man belongs to the government he is no longer master of himself." He
compiled books of questions and answers on various studies for the use
of young ladies in boarding-schools. These little "solid treatises,"
as he called them, were sold at the University library under the name
of "Historical and Geographic Catechisms." Feeling himself in duty
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Egmont by Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe: gates, and the streets are thronged with people. I will hasten at once to my
old father. (As if about to go.)
Clara. Shall we see you to-morrow? I must change my dress a little. I am
expecting my cousin, and I look too untidy. Come, Mother, help me a
moment. Take the book,
Brackenburg, and bring me such another story.
Mother. Farewell.
Brackenburg (extending his hand). Your hand.
Clara (refusing hers). When you come next.
[Exeunt Mother and DAUGHTER.
Brackenburg (alone). I had resolved to go away again at once; and yet,
Egmont |
