| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Young Forester by Zane Grey: It added little to my excitement to recognize the Mexican. He sat near the
fire smoking a cigarette. Near him were several men, one of whom was Bill.
Facing them sat a man with his back to a small sapling. He was tied with a
lasso.
One glance at his white face made me drop behind the tree, where I lay
stunned and bewildered--for that man was Dick Leslie.
VIII. THE LUMBERMEN
For a full moment I just lay still, hugging the ground, and I did not seem
to think at all. Voices loud in anger roused me. Raising myself, I
guardedly looked from behind the tree.
One of the lumbermen threw brush on the fire, making it blaze brightly. He
The Young Forester |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Memorabilia by Xenophon: some private person to entrust his affairs to you as "a really careful
and business-like person with a head for economy." When put to the
test would not your administration prove ruinous, and the figure you
cut ridiculous? No, my dear friend, there is but one road, the
shortest, safest, best, and it is simply this: In whatsoever you
desire to be deemed good, endeavour to be good. For of all the virtues
namable among men, consider, and you will find there is not one but
may be increased by learning and practice. For my part then,
Critobulus, these are the principles on which we ought to go a-
hunting; but if you take a different view, I am all attention, please
instruct me.
The Memorabilia |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Walden by Henry David Thoreau: trespass, and what share belongs to that neighbor." Hippocrates has
even left directions how we should cut our nails; that is, even with
the ends of the fingers, neither shorter nor longer. Undoubtedly
the very tedium and ennui which presume to have exhausted the
variety and the joys of life are as old as Adam. But man's
capacities have never been measured; nor are we to judge of what he
can do by any precedents, so little has been tried. Whatever have
been thy failures hitherto, "be not afflicted, my child, for who
shall assign to thee what thou hast left undone?"
We might try our lives by a thousand simple tests; as, for
instance, that the same sun which ripens my beans illumines at once
Walden |
