| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Apology by Xenophon: himself. As to Anytus, even though the grave has closed upon him, his
evil reputation still survives him, due alike to his son's base
bringing-up and his own want of human feeling.
Socrates did, it is true, by his self-laudation draw down upon him the
jealousy of the court and caused his judges all the more to record
their votes against him. Yet even so I look upon the lot of destiny
which he obtained as providential,[58] chancing as he did upon the
easiest amidst the many shapes of death,[59] and escaping as he did
the one grievous portion of existence. And what a glorious chance,
moreover, he had to display the full strength of his soul, for when
once he had decided that death was better for him than life, just as
The Apology |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Father Damien by Robert Louis Stevenson: yourself landing in the midst of such a population as only now and
then surrounds us in the horror of a nightmare - what a haggard eye
you would have rolled over your reluctant shoulder towards the
house on Beretania Street! Had you gone on; had you found every
fourth face a blot upon the landscape; had you visited the hospital
and seen the butt-ends of human beings lying there almost
unrecognisable, but still breathing, still thinking, still
remembering; you would have understood that life in the lazaretto
is an ordeal from which the nerves of a man's spirit shrink, even
as his eye quails under the brightness of the sun; you would have
felt it was (even today) a pitiful place to visit and a hell to
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy: Dolly now? Amuse Kitty by the sight of my wretchedness, submit to
her patronizing? No; and besides, Dolly wouldn't understand. And
it would be no good my telling her. It would only be interesting
to see Kitty, to show her how I despise every one and everything,
how nothing matters to me now."
Dolly came in with the letter. Anna read it and handed it back in
silence.
"I knew all that," she said, "and it doesn't interest me in the
least."
"Oh, why so? On the contrary, I have hopes," said Dolly, looking
inquisitively at Anna. She had never seen her in such a strangely
Anna Karenina |
