| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Alcibiades II by Platonic Imitator: have been acquainted with the 'Laws' of Plato (compare Laws). An incident
from the Symposium is rather clumsily introduced, and two somewhat
hackneyed quotations (Symp., Gorg.) recur. The reference to the death of
Archelaus as having occurred 'quite lately' is only a fiction, probably
suggested by the Gorgias, where the story of Archelaus is told, and a
similar phrase occurs;--ta gar echthes kai proen gegonota tauta, k.t.l.
There are several passages which are either corrupt or extremely ill-
expressed. But there is a modern interest in the subject of the dialogue;
and it is a good example of a short spurious work, which may be attributed
to the second or third century before Christ.
ALCIBIADES II
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from A Pair of Blue Eyes by Thomas Hardy: and at that critical juncture in London Stephen's only chance of
retaining the ascendancy over her that his face and not his parts
had acquired for him, would have been by doing what, for one
thing, he was too youthful to undertake--that was, dragging her by
the wrist to the rails of some altar, and peremptorily marrying
her. Decisive action is seen by appreciative minds to be
frequently objectless, and sometimes fatal; but decision, however
suicidal, has more charm for a woman than the most unequivocal
Fabian success.
However, some of the unpleasant accessories of that occasion were
now out of sight again, and Stephen had resumed not a few of his
A Pair of Blue Eyes |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from At the Earth's Core by Edgar Rice Burroughs: Behind us rose a dark and forbidding wood of giant
arborescent ferns intermingled with the commoner types
of a primeval tropical forest. Huge creepers depended
in great loops from tree to tree, dense under-brush
overgrew a tangled mass of fallen trunks and branches.
Upon the outer verge we could see the same splendid
coloring of countless blossoms that glorified the islands,
but within the dense shadows all seemed dark and gloomy
as the grave.
And upon all the noonday sun poured its torrid rays
out of a cloudless sky.
At the Earth's Core |
