| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Ion by Plato: you speak of Homer without any art or knowledge. If you were able to speak
of him by rules of art, you would have been able to speak of all other
poets; for poetry is a whole.
ION: Yes.
SOCRATES: And when any one acquires any other art as a whole, the same may
be said of them. Would you like me to explain my meaning, Ion?
ION: Yes, indeed, Socrates; I very much wish that you would: for I love
to hear you wise men talk.
SOCRATES: O that we were wise, Ion, and that you could truly call us so;
but you rhapsodes and actors, and the poets whose verses you sing, are
wise; whereas I am a common man, who only speak the truth. For consider
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Adventure by Jack London: reef at Poonga-Poonga, looted clean of everything portable, and
ready to go to pieces with the first bit of lively sea. And third,
Miss Lackland bought her at auction. She was knocked down to her
for fifty-five quid by the third-assistant-resident-commissioner.
I ought to know. I bid fifty myself, for Morgan and Raff. My
word, weren't they hot! I told them to go to the devil, and that
it was their fault for limiting me to fifty quid when they thought
the chance to salve the Martha was worth more. You see, they
weren't expecting competition. Fulcrum Brothers had no
representative present, neither had Fires, Philp Company, and the
only man to be afraid of was Nielsen's agent, Squires, and him they
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Devil's Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce: With tranquil disaffection chews his coat
While yet it hangs upon his back; then thou,
The star far-flaming on thine angel brow,
Descendest, radiant, from the skies to hint
The promise of a clerkship in the Mint.
Fogarty Weffing
HOSPITALITY, n. The virtue which induces us to feed and lodge certain
persons who are not in need of food and lodging.
HOSTILITY, n. A peculiarly sharp and specially applied sense of the
earth's overpopulation. Hostility is classified as active and
passive; as (respectively) the feeling of a woman for her female
The Devil's Dictionary |
