| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from An Ideal Husband by Oscar Wilde: refuses it with a gesture.]
MRS. CHEVELEY. Thank you. Will you help me on with my cloak?
LORD GORING. With pleasure. [Puts her cloak on.]
MRS. CHEVELEY. Thanks. I am never going to try to harm Robert
Chiltern again.
LORD GORING. Fortunately you have not the chance, Mrs. Cheveley.
MRS. CHEVELEY. Well, if even I had the chance, I wouldn't. On the
contrary, I am going to render him a great service.
LORD GORING. I am charmed to hear it. It is a reformation.
MRS. CHEVELEY. Yes. I can't bear so upright a gentleman, so
honourable an English gentleman, being so shamefully deceived, and so
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe: them we knew not. Once we thought of carrying it away, and setting
fire to it at a distance; but when we came to handle it, we found
it too bulky for our carriage, so we were at a loss again. The
second Scotsman was for setting fire to the hut, and knocking the
creatures that were there on the head when they came out; but I
could not join with that; I was against killing them, if it were
possible to avoid it. "Well, then," said the Scots merchant, "I
will tell you what we will do: we will try to make them prisoners,
tie their hands, and make them stand and see their idol destroyed."
As it happened, we had twine or packthread enough about us, which
we used to tie our firelocks together with; so we resolved to
Robinson Crusoe |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Golden Sayings of Epictetus by Epictetus: Friend, lay hold with a desperate grasp, ere it is too late,
on Freedom, on Tranquility, on Greatness of soul! Lift up thy
head, as one escaped from slavery; dare to look up to God, and
say:--"Deal with me henceforth as Thou wilt; Thou and I are of
one mind. I am Thine: I refuse nothing that seeeth good to Thee;
lead on whither Thou wilt; clothe me in what garb Thou pleasest;
wilt Thou have me a ruler or a subject--at home or in exile--
poor or rich? All these things will I justify unto men for Thee.
I will show the true nature of each. . . ."
Who would Hercules have been had he loitered at home? no
Hercules, but Eurystheus. And in his wanderings through the world
The Golden Sayings of Epictetus |
