| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving: consisted of two shirts and a half; two stocks for the neck; a
pair or two of worsted stockings; an old pair of corduroy small-
clothes; a rusty razor; a book of psalm tunes full of dog's-ears;
and a broken pitch-pipe. As to the books and furniture of the
schoolhouse, they belonged to the community, excepting Cotton
Mather's History of Witchcraft, a New England Almanac, and
book of dreams and fortune-telling; in which last was a sheet of
foolscap much scribbled and blotted in several fruitless attempts
to make a copy of verses in honor of the heiress of Van Tassel.
These magic books and the poetic scrawl were forthwith consigned
to the flames by Hans Van Ripper; who, from that time forward,
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Sanitary and Social Lectures by Charles Kingsley: duty, simply because it must be done--nobler far, I say, than to
go out of your way to attempt a brilliant deed, with a double
mind, and saying to yourself not only--"This will be a brilliant
deed," but also--"and it will pay me, or raise me, or set me off,
into the bargain." Heroism knows no "into the bargain." And
therefore, again, I must protest against applying the word
"heroic" to any deeds, however charitable, however toilsome,
however dangerous, performed for the sake of what certain French
ladies, I am told, call "faire son salut"--saving one's soul in
the world to come. I do not mean to judge. Other and quite
unselfish motives may be, and doubtless often are, mixed up with
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Gorgias by Plato: SOCRATES: And if pleasantly, then also happily?
CALLICLES: To be sure.
SOCRATES: But what if the itching is not confined to the head? Shall I
pursue the question? And here, Callicles, I would have you consider how
you would reply if consequences are pressed upon you, especially if in the
last resort you are asked, whether the life of a catamite is not terrible,
foul, miserable? Or would you venture to say, that they too are happy, if
they only get enough of what they want?
CALLICLES: Are you not ashamed, Socrates, of introducing such topics into
the argument?
SOCRATES: Well, my fine friend, but am I the introducer of these topics,
|
