| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Lysis by Plato: Democrates, which the whole city celebrates, and grandfather Lysis, and the
other ancestors of the youth, and their stud of horses, and their victory
at the Pythian games, and at the Isthmus, and at Nemea with four horses and
single horses--these are the tales which he composes and repeats. And
there is greater twaddle still. Only the day before yesterday he made a
poem in which he described the entertainment of Heracles, who was a
connexion of the family, setting forth how in virtue of this relationship
he was hospitably received by an ancestor of Lysis; this ancestor was
himself begotten of Zeus by the daughter of the founder of the deme. And
these are the sort of old wives' tales which he sings and recites to us,
and we are obliged to listen to him.
Lysis |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Country Doctor by Honore de Balzac: dieted?"
"The peasants are incorrigible," Benassis went on, speaking to
Genestas. "If a patient has eaten nothing for two or three days, they
think he is at death's door, and they cram him with soup or wine or
something. Here is a wretched woman for you that has all but killed
her husband."
"Kill my husband with a little mite of a sop in wine!"
"Certainly, my good woman. It amazes me that he is still alive after
the mess you cooked for him. Mind that you do exactly as I have told
you."
"Yes, dear sir, I would far rather die myself than lose him."
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Kreutzer Sonata by Leo Tolstoy: while the children were interested most in what he would bring
them from the town.
The only news received by the villagers during the day concerning
Polikey was to the effect that neighboring peasants had seen him
running up and down the road and asking every one he met if he or
she had found an envelope.
One of them had seen him also walking by the side of his
tired-out horse. "I thought," said he, "that the man was drunk,
and had not fed his horse for two days--the animal looked so
exhausted."
Unable to sleep, and with her heart palpitating at every sound,
The Kreutzer Sonata |
