| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Twilight Land by Howard Pyle: more." So he opened the door and peeped in.
"Pooh!" said the Fiddler, "There's nothing there, after all," and
he opened the door wide.
Before him was a great long passageway, and at the far end of it
he could see a spark of light as though the sun were shining
there. He listened, and after a while he heard a sound like the
waves beating on the shore. "Well," says he, "this is the most
curious thing I have seen for a long time. Since I have come so
far, I may as well see the end of it." So he entered the
passageway, and closed the door behind him. He went on and on,
and the spark of light kept growing larger and larger, and
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Phaedrus by Plato: a writer; but there may be disgrace in being a bad one.
And what is good or bad writing or speaking? While the sun is hot in the
sky above us, let us ask that question: since by rational conversation man
lives, and not by the indulgence of bodily pleasures. And the grasshoppers
who are chirruping around may carry our words to the Muses, who are their
patronesses; for the grasshoppers were human beings themselves in a world
before the Muses, and when the Muses came they died of hunger for the love
of song. And they carry to them in heaven the report of those who honour
them on earth.
The first rule of good speaking is to know and speak the truth; as a
Spartan proverb says, 'true art is truth'; whereas rhetoric is an art of
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Padre Ignacio by Owen Wister: open window was the quiet, serene darkness, where the stars shone clear,
and tranquil perfumes hung in the cloisters. But while the guest lay
sleeping all night in unchanged position like a child, up and down
between the oleanders went Padre Ignacio, walking until dawn. Temptation
indeed had come over the hill and entered the cloisters.
III
Day showed the ocean's surface no longer glassy, but lying like a mirror
breathed upon; and there between the short headlands came a sail, gray
and plain against the flat water. The priest watched through his glasses,
and saw the gradual sun grow strong upon the canvas of the barkentine.
The message from his world was at hand, yet to-day he scarcely cared so
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