| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Lesser Hippias by Plato: him? There is the more reason why you should speak, because we are now
alone, and the audience is confined to those who may fairly claim to take
part in a philosophical discussion.
SOCRATES: I should greatly like, Eudicus, to ask Hippias the meaning of
what he was saying just now about Homer. I have heard your father,
Apemantus, declare that the Iliad of Homer is a finer poem than the Odyssey
in the same degree that Achilles was a better man than Odysseus; Odysseus,
he would say, is the central figure of the one poem and Achilles of the
other. Now, I should like to know, if Hippias has no objection to tell me,
what he thinks about these two heroes, and which of them he maintains to be
the better; he has already told us in the course of his exhibition many
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Gobseck by Honore de Balzac: circumspection and uneasiness that set me wondering. His face grew
livid, flushed, and yellow, turn and turn about, and by the time that
Gobseck's door came in sight the perspiration stood in drops on his
forehead. We were just getting out of the cabriolet, when a hackney
cab turned into the street. My companion's hawk eye detected a woman
in the depths of the vehicle. His face lighted up with a gleam of
almost savage joy; he called to a little boy who was passing, and gave
him his horse to hold. Then we went up to the old bill discounter.
" 'M. Gobseck,' said I, 'I have brought one of my most intimate
friends to see you (whom I trust as I would trust the Devil,' I added
for the old man's private ear). 'To oblige me you will do your best
Gobseck |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The King of the Golden River by John Ruskin: went away pouring maledictions on the Black Brothers. They asked
what they liked and got it, except from the poor people, who could
only beg, and several of whom were starved at their very door
without the slightest regard or notice.
It was drawing towards winter, and very cold weather, when
one day the two elder brothers had gone out, with their usual
warning to little Gluck, who was left to mind the roast, that he
was to let nobody in and give nothing out. Gluck sat down quite
close to the fire, for it was raining very hard and the kitchen
walls were by no means dry or comfortable-looking. He turned and
turned, and the roast got nice and brown. "What a pity," thought
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