| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Iliad by Homer: serried battalions stayed him when he reached them, for the sons
of the Achaeans thrust at him with swords and spears pointed at
both ends, and drove him from them so that he staggered and gave
ground; thereon he shouted to the Trojans, "Trojans, Lycians, and
Dardanians, fighters in close combat, stand firm: the Achaeans
have set themselves as a wall against me, but they will not check
me for long; they will give ground before me if the mightiest of
the gods, the thundering spouse of Juno, has indeed inspired my
onset."
With these words he put heart and soul into them all. Deiphobus
son of Priam went about among them intent on deeds of daring with
The Iliad |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Herodias by Gustave Flaubert: of Vitellius indicated that he regarded all this turmoil as no concern
of his.
The Pharisees, leaning against the pavilion, were now beside
themselves with demoniac fury. They broke plates and dashed them upon
the floor. The attendants had served them with a ragout composed of
the flesh of the wild ass, an unclean animal, and their anger knew no
bounds. Aulus rallied them jeeringly apropos of the ass's head, which
he declared they honoured. He flung other sarcasms at them, regarding
their antipathy to the flesh of swine, intimating that no doubt their
hatred arose from the fact that that beast had killed their beloved
Bacchus, and saying it was to be feared they were too fond of wine,
Herodias |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from My Bondage and My Freedom by Frederick Douglass: life. Have I not as good a right to be free as you have?" Words
like these, I observed, always troubled them; and I had no small
satisfaction in wringing from the boys, occasionally, that fresh
and bitter condemnation of slavery, that springs from nature,
unseared and unperverted. Of all consciences let me have those
to deal with which have not been bewildered by the cares of life.
I do not remember ever to have met with a _boy_, while I was in
slavery, who defended the slave system; but I have often had boys
to console me, with the hope that something would yet occur, by
which I might be made free. Over and over again, they have told
me, that "they believed I had as good a right to be free as
My Bondage and My Freedom |
