| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Symposium by Xenophon: lose, and, as a rule, I lost it; what the state did not exact, some
mischance stole from me. But now that is over. I lose nothing, having
nought to lose; but, on the contrary, I have everything to gain, and
live in hope of some day getting something.[53]
[53] "I feed on the pleasures of hope, and fortune in the future."
Call. And so, of course, your one prayer is that you may never more be
rich, and if you are visited by a dream of luck your one thought is to
offer sacrifice to Heaven to avert misfortune.[54]
[54] Or, "you wake up in a fright, and offer sacrifice to the
'Averters.'" For {tois apotropaiois} see Aristoph. "Plutus," 359;
Plat. "Laws," 854 B; "Hell." III. iii. 4.
The Symposium |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Marie by H. Rider Haggard: "Oh! have no fear," he exclaimed with a sudden lighting up of his dark
face, "I will pay you what I owe you, every farthing, with good interest
thrown in."
"The king has just told me that is you intention," I remarked quietly,
looking him full in the eyes. Then I walked on, leaving him staring
after me, apparently without a word to say.
I went straight to the hut that was allotted to Retief in the little
outlying guard-kraal, which had been given to us for a camp. Here I
found the commandant seated on a Kaffir stool engaged in painfully
writing a letter, using a bit of board placed on his knees as a desk.
He looked up, and asked me how I had got on with Dingaan, not being
Marie |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Little Women by Louisa May Alcott: Remembering the conversation of the afternoon, the boy said to
himself, with the resolve to make the sacrifice cheerfully, "I'll
let my castle go, and stay with the dear old gentleman while he
needs me, for I am all he has."
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Jo was very busy in the garret, for the October days began
to grow chilly, and the afternoons were short. For two or three
hours the sun lay warmly in the high window, showing Jo seated
on the old sofa, writing busily, with her papers spread out
upon a trunk before her, while Scrabble, the pet rat,
promenaded the beams overhead, accompanied by his oldest son,
Little Women |
