| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Lady Windermere's Fan by Oscar Wilde: DUCHESS OF BERWICK. Dear Lord Darlington, how thoroughly depraved
you are!
LADY WINDERMERE. Lord Darlington is trivial.
LORD DARLINGTON. Ah, don't say that, Lady Windermere.
LADY WINDERMERE. Why do you TALK so trivially about life, then?
LORD DARLINGTON. Because I think that life is far too important a
thing ever to talk seriously about it. [Moves up C.]
DUCHESS OF BERWICK. What does he mean? Do, as a concession to my
poor wits, Lord Darlington, just explain to me what you really
mean.
LORD DARLINGTON. [Coming down back of table.] I think I had
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Charmides by Plato: In publishing a Second Edition (1875) of the Dialogues of Plato in English,
I had to acknowledge the assistance of several friends: of the Rev. G.G.
Bradley, Master of University College, now Dean of Westminster, who sent me
some valuable remarks on the Phaedo; of Dr. Greenhill, who had again
revised a portion of the Timaeus; of Mr. R.L. Nettleship, Fellow and Tutor
of Balliol College, to whom I was indebted for an excellent criticism of
the Parmenides; and, above all, of the Rev. Professor Campbell of St.
Andrews, and Mr. Paravicini, late Student of Christ Church and Tutor of
Balliol College, with whom I had read over the greater part of the
translation. I was also indebted to Mr. Evelyn Abbott, Fellow and Tutor of
Balliol College, for a complete and accurate index.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from My Antonia by Willa Cather: As I wandered over those rough pastures, I had the good luck
to stumble upon a bit of the first road that went from Black
Hawk out to the north country; to my grandfather's farm,
then on to the Shimerdas' and to the Norwegian settlement.
Everywhere else it had been ploughed under when the highways
were surveyed; this half-mile or so within the pasture fence
was all that was left of that old road which used to run like a
wild thing across the open prairie, clinging to the high places
and circling and doubling like a rabbit before the hounds.
On the level land the tracks had almost disappeared--were mere
shadings in the grass, and a stranger would not have noticed them.
My Antonia |
