| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Salammbo by Gustave Flaubert: hail!"
She swayed her whole body twice or thrice, and then cast herself face
downwards in the dust with both arms outstretched.
But the slave nimbly raised her, for according to the rites someone
must catch the suppliant at the moment of his prostration; this told
him that the gods accepted him, and Salammbo's nurse never failed in
this pious duty.
Some merchants from Darytian Gaetulia had brought her to Carthage when
quite young, and after her enfranchisement she would not forsake her
old masters, as was shown by her right ear, which was pierced with a
large hole. A petticoat of many-coloured stripes fitted closely on her
Salammbo |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Ion by Plato: SOCRATES: Do you mean that a rhapsode will know better than the pilot what
the ruler of a sea-tossed vessel ought to say?
ION: No; the pilot will know best.
SOCRATES: Or will the rhapsode know better than the physician what the
ruler of a sick man ought to say?
ION: He will not.
SOCRATES: But he will know what a slave ought to say?
ION: Yes.
SOCRATES: Suppose the slave to be a cowherd; the rhapsode will know better
than the cowherd what he ought to say in order to soothe the infuriated
cows?
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from End of the Tether by Joseph Conrad: many atmospheres in its tail. It is the sort of weapon
to make its possessor careworn and nervous. He had
no mind to be blown up himself; and he could not get
rid of the notion that the explosion was bound to damage
him too in some way.
This vague apprehension had restrained him at first.
He was able now to eat and sleep with that fearful
weapon by his side, with the conviction of its power
always in mind. It had not been arrived at by any
reflective process; but once the idea had entered his
head, the conviction had followed overwhelmingly in a
End of the Tether |
