| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Alcibiades II by Platonic Imitator: ascribed to Plato. They are examples of Platonic dialogues to be assigned
probably to the second or third generation after Plato, when his writings
were well known at Athens and Alexandria. They exhibit considerable
originality, and are remarkable for containing several thoughts of the sort
which we suppose to be modern rather than ancient, and which therefore have
a peculiar interest for us. The Second Alcibiades shows that the
difficulties about prayer which have perplexed Christian theologians were
not unknown among the followers of Plato. The Eryxias was doubted by the
ancients themselves: yet it may claim the distinction of being, among all
Greek or Roman writings, the one which anticipates in the most striking
manner the modern science of political economy and gives an abstract form
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Across The Plains by Robert Louis Stevenson: sea. As for Wick itself, it is one of the meanest of man's towns,
and situate certainly on the baldest of God's bays. It lives for
herring, and a strange sight it is to see (of an afternoon) the
heights of Pulteney blackened by seaward-looking fishers, as when a
city crowds to a review - or, as when bees have swarmed, the ground
is horrible with lumps and clusters; and a strange sight, and a
beautiful, to see the fleet put silently out against a rising moon,
the sea-line rough as a wood with sails, and ever and again and one
after another, a boat flitting swiftly by the silver disk. This
mass of fishers, this great fleet of boats, is out of all
proportion to the town itself; and the oars are manned and the nets
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Dracula by Bram Stoker: and sensual, and big white teeth, that looked all the whiter
because his lips were so red, were pointed like an animal's.
Jonathan kept staring at him, till I was afraid he would notice.
I feared he might take it ill, he looked so fierce and nasty.
I asked Jonathan why he was disturbed, and he answered,
evidently thinking that I knew as much about it as he did,
"Do you see who it is?"
"No, dear," I said. "I don't know him, who is it?"
His answer seemed to shock and thrill me, for it was said as if
he did not know that it was me, Mina, to whom he was speaking.
"It is the man himself!"
Dracula |
