| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Christ in Flanders by Honore de Balzac: possible to see the coast of Flanders by the dying fires of the
sunset, or to make out upon the hither shore any forms of belated
passengers hurrying along the wall of the dykes that surrounded the
open country, or among the tall reeds of the marshes. The boat was
full.
"What are you waiting for? Let us put off!" they cried.
Just at that moment a man appeared a few paces from the jetty, to the
surprise of the skipper, who had heard no sound of footsteps. The
traveler seemed to have sprung up from the earth, like a peasant who
had laid himself down on the ground to wait till the boat should
start, and had slept till the sound of the horn awakened him. Was he a
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from At the Mountains of Madness by H. P. Lovecraft: still bore a fantastic conical monument carved out of the solid
rock and roughly resembling such things as the well-known Snake
Tomb in the ancient valley of Petra.
Flying inland from the
mountains, we discovered that the city was not of infinite width,
even though its length along the foothills seemed endless. After
about thirty miles the grotesque stone buildings began to thin
out, and in ten more miles we came to an unbroken waste virtually
without signs of sentient artifice. The course of the river beyond
the city seemed marked by a broad, depressed line, while the land
assumed a somewhat greater ruggedness, seeming to slope slightly
At the Mountains of Madness |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Republic by Plato: got by slaving for it, do you think that, under such adverse circumstances,
he will be easily induced to listen?
Far otherwise.
And even if there be some one who through inherent goodness or natural
reasonableness has had his eyes opened a little and is humbled and taken
captive by philosophy, how will his friends behave when they think that
they are likely to lose the advantage which they were hoping to reap from
his companionship? Will they not do and say anything to prevent him from
yielding to his better nature and to render his teacher powerless, using to
this end private intrigues as well as public prosecutions?
There can be no doubt of it.
The Republic |
