| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Princess by Alfred Tennyson: Oration-like. I kissed it and I read.
'O brother, you have known the pangs we felt,
What heats of indignation when we heard
Of those that iron-cramped their women's feet;
Of lands in which at the altar the poor bride
Gives her harsh groom for bridal-gift a scourge;
Of living hearts that crack within the fire
Where smoulder their dead despots; and of those,--
Mothers,--that, with all prophetic pity, fling
Their pretty maids in the running flood, and swoops
The vulture, beak and talon, at the heart
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Memorabilia by Xenophon: our fellow-workman in every art and every instrument which for the
sake of its utility mortal man may invent or furnish himself withal.
What of this, since, to put it compendiously, there is nothing
serviceable to the life of man worth speaking of but owes its
fabrication to fire?[12]
[11] Lit. "and then the fact that they made provision for us of even
fire"; the credit of this boon, according to Hesiod, being due to
Prometheus.
[12] Or, "no life-aiding appliance worthy of the name."
Euth. Yes, a transcendent instance of benevolent design.[13]
[13] Or, "Yes, that may be called an extreme instance of the divine
The Memorabilia |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table by Oliver Wendell Holmes: procession, and left the basso and soprano to finish it. I see no
reason why this young woman should not be a very proper match for a
man that laughs about Boston State-house. He can't be very
particular.
The young fellow whom I have so often mentioned was a little free
in his remarks, but very good-natured. - Sorry to have you go, - he
said. - School-ma'am made a mistake not to wait for me. Haven't
taken anything but mournin' fruit at breakfast since I heard of it.
- MOURNING fruit, - said I, - what's that? - Huckleberries and
blackberries, - said he; - couldn't eat in colors, raspberries,
currants, and such, after a solemn thing like this happening. - The
The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table |
