| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne: established a farm, belonging to an Irishman, who offered hospitality to
the travelers. Lord Glenarvan made known to the Irishman the cause which
had brought him to these parts, and asked if he knew whether a three-masted
English vessel, the 'Britannia,' had been lost less than two years before
on the west coast of Australia.
"The Irishman had never heard of this wreck, but, to the great surprise
of the bystanders, one of his servants came forward and said,--
"'My lord, praise and thank God! If Captain Grant is still living, he is
living on the Australian shores.'
"'Who are you?' asked Lord Glenarvan.
"'A Scotchman like yourself, my lord,' replied the man; 'I am one of
The Mysterious Island |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Euthyphro by Plato: mistaken; but his chief work is the production of food from the earth?
EUTHYPHRO: Exactly.
SOCRATES: And of the many and fair things done by the gods, which is the
chief or principal one?
EUTHYPHRO: I have told you already, Socrates, that to learn all these
things accurately will be very tiresome. Let me simply say that piety or
holiness is learning how to please the gods in word and deed, by prayers
and sacrifices. Such piety is the salvation of families and states, just
as the impious, which is unpleasing to the gods, is their ruin and
destruction.
SOCRATES: I think that you could have answered in much fewer words the
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe: wits. But I did not then know what I afterwards learned, that
hunger will tame a lion. If I had let him stay three or four days
without food, and then have carried him some water to drink and
then a little corn, he would have been as tame as one of the kids;
for they are mighty sagacious, tractable creatures, where they are
well used.
However, for the present I let him go, knowing no better at that
time: then I went to the three kids, and taking them one by one, I
tied them with strings together, and with some difficulty brought
them all home.
It was a good while before they would feed; but throwing them some
Robinson Crusoe |
