| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne: to beat about the edge of the forest.
From the extremity of the promontory which formed the tail of the
peninsula the coast was rounded for a distance of five miles, which was
rapidly passed over, without even the most minute investigations bringing
to light the least trace of any old or recent landings; no debris, no mark
of an encampment, no cinders of a fire, nor even a footprint!
From the point of the peninsula on which the settlers now were their gaze
could extend along the southwest. Twenty-five miles off the coast
terminated in the Claw Cape, which loomed dimly through the morning mists,
and which, by the phenomenon of the mirage, appeared as if suspended
between land and water.
The Mysterious Island |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Confessio Amantis by John Gower: Whan that sche falleth in the Mir.
For if he may have his desir,
How so falle of the remenant,
He halt no word of covenant;
Bot er the time that he spede,
Ther is no sleihte at thilke nede,
Which eny loves faitour mai,
That he ne put it in assai, 690
As him belongeth forto done.
The colour of the reyni Mone
With medicine upon his face
Confessio Amantis |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Protagoras by Plato: by art, and also, like ability, by madness and rage; but courage comes to
them from nature and the healthy state of the soul.
I said: You would admit, Protagoras, that some men live well and others
ill?
He assented.
And do you think that a man lives well who lives in pain and grief?
He does not.
But if he lives pleasantly to the end of his life, will he not in that case
have lived well?
He will.
Then to live pleasantly is a good, and to live unpleasantly an evil?
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