| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Voice of the City by O. Henry: dissastisfied and sportive. He was no diagnostician,
and he did not know that Lent was breaking up
physiologically in his system.
Mrs. McQuirk had spoken of spring. Sceptically
Tiger looked about him for signs. Few they
were. The organ-grinders were at work; but they
were always precocious harbingers. It was near
enough spring for them to go penny-hunting when the
skating ball dropped at the park. In the milliners'
windows Easter hats, grave, gay and jubilant, blos-
somed. There were green patches among the side-
The Voice of the City |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Lysis by Plato: Thank you, I said; and is there any teacher there?
Yes, he said, your old friend and admirer, Miccus.
Indeed, I replied; he is a very eminent professor.
Are you disposed, he said, to go with me and see them?
Yes, I said; but I should like to know first, what is expected of me, and
who is the favourite among you?
Some persons have one favourite, Socrates, and some another, he said.
And who is yours? I asked: tell me that, Hippothales.
At this he blushed; and I said to him, O Hippothales, thou son of
Hieronymus! do not say that you are, or that you are not, in love; the
confession is too late; for I see that you are not only in love, but are
Lysis |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from On Revenues by Xenophon: are built, or slaves purchased, etc., these portions will begin to pay
at once. In fact, the bit-by-bit method of proceeding will be more
advantageous than a simultaneous carrying into effect of the whole
plan, to this extent: if we set about erecting buildings wholesale[41]
we shall make a more expensive and worse job of it than if we finish
them off gradually. Again, if we set about bidding for hundreds of
slaves at once we shall be forced to purchase an inferior type at a
higher cost. Whereas, if we proceed tentatively, as we find ourselves
able,[42] we can complete any well-devised attempt at our leisure,[43]
and, in case of any obvious failure, take warning and not repeat it.
Again, if everything were to be carried out at once, it is we, sirs,
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