| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Republic by Plato: brass or iron.' Will our citizens ever believe all this? 'Not in the
present generation, but in the next, perhaps, Yes.'
Now let the earthborn men go forth under the command of their rulers, and
look about and pitch their camp in a high place, which will be safe against
enemies from without, and likewise against insurrections from within.
There let them sacrifice and set up their tents; for soldiers they are to
be and not shopkeepers, the watchdogs and guardians of the sheep; and
luxury and avarice will turn them into wolves and tyrants. Their habits
and their dwellings should correspond to their education. They should have
no property; their pay should only meet their expenses; and they should
have common meals. Gold and silver we will tell them that they have from
The Republic |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Deputy of Arcis by Honore de Balzac: heart he was thinking of the government subsidy he wanted for his
iron-mine. The new deputy, on his side, foresaw an inevitable meeting
with the minister, and wondered what his friends in the Opposition
would say when they read in the "National" that a representative of
the Left was seen to have an interview with a minister celebrated for
his art in converting political opponents. Anxious also to return to
Marie-Gaston, he resolved to profit by the general stir created by the
minister's arrival to slip away; and by a masterly manoeuvre he made
his way slyly to the door of the salon, expecting to escape without
being seen. But he reckoned without Nais, to whom he was engaged for a
quadrille. That small girl sounded the alarm at the moment when he
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Chouans by Honore de Balzac: he was not wholly through the window, felt his neck clasped with a
despairing pressure. Seeing that his wife had put on his clothes, he
tried to detain her; but she tore herself roughly from his arms and he
was forced to descend. In his hand he held a fragment of some stuff
which the moonlight showed him was a piece of the waistcoat he had
worn the night before.
"Halt! fire!"
These words uttered by Hulot in the midst of a silence that was almost
horrible broke the spell which seemed to hold the men and their
surroundings. A volley of balls coming from the valley and reaching to
the foot of the tower succeeded the discharges of the Blues posted on
The Chouans |
