| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Persuasion by Jane Austen: that Elizabeth had been long enough in Bath to understand
the importance of a man of such an air and appearance as his.
The past was nothing. The present was that Captain Wentworth
would move about well in her drawing-room. The card was pointedly given,
and Sir Walter and Elizabeth arose and disappeared.
The interruption had been short, though severe, and ease and animation
returned to most of those they left as the door shut them out,
but not to Anne. She could think only of the invitation she had
with such astonishment witnessed, and of the manner in which
it had been received; a manner of doubtful meaning, of surprise rather
than gratification, of polite acknowledgement rather than acceptance.
Persuasion |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Apology by Xenophon: one dreams of dunning me for benefits conferred, hosts of people
acknowledge debts of gratitude to myself? And what of this, that
during the siege,[35] while others were pitying themselves[36] I lived
in no greater straits than when the city was at the height of her
prosperity? and of this, that while others provide themselves with
delicacies[37] of the market at great cost, mine are the dainties of
the soul more sweet than theirs,[38] procured without expense? If in
all I have said about myself no one can convict me of lying, is it not
obvious that the praise I get from gods and men is justly earned? And
yet in spite of all, Meletus, you will have it that by such habits I
corrupt the young. We know, I fancy, what such corrupting influences
The Apology |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Expression of Emotion in Man and Animals by Charles Darwin: [32] On the authority of Lady Mary Wortley Montague;
see Burgess, ibid. p. 43.
It is known that the involuntary movements of the heart are
affected if close attention be paid to them. Gratiolet[34] gives
the case of a man, who by continually watching and counting his
own pulse, at last caused one beat out of every six to intermit.
On the other hand, my father told me of a careful observer,
who certainly had heart-disease and died from it, and who
positively stated that his pulse was habitually irregular
to an extreme degree; yet to his great disappointment it
invariably became regular as soon as my father entered the room.
Expression of Emotion in Man and Animals |
