| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Republic by Plato: we allow our citizens to receive bribes, or to say, 'Gifts persuade the
gods, gifts reverend kings;' or to applaud the ignoble advice of Phoenix to
Achilles that he should get money out of the Greeks before he assisted
them; or the meanness of Achilles himself in taking gifts from Agamemnon;
or his requiring a ransom for the body of Hector; or his cursing of Apollo;
or his insolence to the river-god Scamander; or his dedication to the dead
Patroclus of his own hair which had been already dedicated to the other
river-god Spercheius; or his cruelty in dragging the body of Hector round
the walls, and slaying the captives at the pyre: such a combination of
meanness and cruelty in Cheiron's pupil is inconceivable. The amatory
exploits of Peirithous and Theseus are equally unworthy. Either these so-
The Republic |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Battle of the Books by Jonathan Swift: Therefore it seemeth to me that the truest way to understand
conversation is to know the faults and errors to which it is
subject, and from thence every man to form maxims to himself
whereby it may be regulated, because it requireth few talents to
which most men are not born, or at least may not acquire without
any great genius or study. For nature bath left every man a
capacity of being agreeable, though not of shining in company; and
there are a hundred men sufficiently qualified for both, who, by a
very few faults that they might correct in half an hour, are not so
much as tolerable.
I was prompted to write my thoughts upon this subject by mere
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Pool of Blood in the Pastor's Study by Grace Isabel Colbron and Augusta Groner: brook. While I was there I saw shepherd Janci coming along and I
hid behind the willows. He almost discovered me once, but Janci's
a dreamer, he sees things nobody else sees - and he doesn't see
things that everybody else does see. I couldn't help laughing at
his sleepy face. But I didn't laugh when I came back to the asylum.
Gyuri was waiting for me at the door. When he saw that I hadn't
brought the candlesticks he beat me and tortured me worse than he'd
ever done before."
"And you didn't tell anyone?"
"Why, no; because I was afraid that if I told on him, I'd never be
able to go out again."
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