| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Polity of Athenians and Lacedaemonians by Xenophon: same gymnasium, and all as suits his humour. But at Lacedaemon there
is not one man who would not feel ashamed to welcome the coward at the
common mess-tabe, or to try conclusions with such an antagonist in a
wrestling bout. Consider the day's round of his existence. The sides
are being picked up in a football match,[2] but he is left out as the
odd man: there is no place for him. During the choric dance[3] he is
driven away into ignominious quarters. Nay, in the very streets it is
he who must step aside for others to pass, or, being seated, he must
rise and make room, even for a younger man. At home he will have his
maiden relatives to support in isolation (and they will hold him to
blame for their unwedded lives).[4] A hearth with no wife to bless it
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Court Life in China by Isaac Taylor Headland: dressed as themselves. Here they find all kinds of toys, curios,
and articles of general use, from a top to a broom, from bits of
jade or other precious stones, to a snuff bottle hollowed out of
a solid quartz crystal, or a market basket or a dust-pan made of
reeds.
Peking being the city of the court, and the headquarters of many
of the greatest officials, is the receptacle of the finest
products of the oldest and greatest non-Christian people the
world has ever known. China easily leads the world in the making
of porcelain, the best of which has always gone to Peking for use
in the palace, and so we can find here the best products of every
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Ozma of Oz by L. Frank Baum: some of the cakes, had gone to sleep at one side of the cave, while
upon the other side stood the Sawhorse, motionless and silent, as
became a mere thing of wood. Billina had quietly walked around and
picked up the crumbs of cake which had been scattered, and now, as it
was long after bed-time, she tried to find some dark place in which to
go to sleep.
Presently the hen espied a hollow underneath the King's rocky throne,
and crept into it unnoticed. She could still hear the chattering of
those around her, but it was almost dark underneath the throne, so
that soon she had fallen fast asleep.
"Next!" called the King, and the private, whose turn it was to enter
Ozma of Oz |
