| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Egmont by Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe: children are controlled and guided. Trust me, a people grows neither old
nor wise, a people remains always in its infancy.
Egmont. How rarely does a king attain wisdom! And is it not fit that the
many should confide their interests to the many rather than to the one?
And not even to the one, but to the few servants of the one, men who have
grown old under the eyes of their master. To grow wise, it seems, is the
exclusive privilege of these favoured individuals.
Alva. Perhaps for the very reason that they are not left to themselves.
Egmont. And therefore they would fain leave no one else to his own
guidance. Let them do what they like, however; I have replied to your
questions, and I repeat, the measures you propose will never succeed!
Egmont |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from My Antonia by Willa Cather: I said I would go with her until we could see Squaw Creek,
and then turn and run home. We drifted along lazily, very happy,
through the magical light of the late afternoon.
All those fall afternoons were the same, but I never got used to them.
As far as we could see, the miles of copper-red grass were
drenched in sunlight that was stronger and fiercer than at any
other time of the day. The blond cornfields were red gold,
the haystacks turned rosy and threw long shadows. The whole prairie
was like the bush that burned with fire and was not consumed.
That hour always had the exultation of victory, of triumphant ending,
like a hero's death--heroes who died young and gloriously.
My Antonia |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Apology by Plato: identified with the teachers of physical science and with the Sophists.
But this was an error. For both of them he professes a respect in the open
court, which contrasts with his manner of speaking about them in other
places. (Compare for Anaxagoras, Phaedo, Laws; for the Sophists, Meno,
Republic, Tim., Theaet., Soph., etc.) But at the same time he shows that
he is not one of them. Of natural philosophy he knows nothing; not that he
despises such pursuits, but the fact is that he is ignorant of them, and
never says a word about them. Nor is he paid for giving instruction--that
is another mistaken notion:--he has nothing to teach. But he commends
Evenus for teaching virtue at such a 'moderate' rate as five minae.
Something of the 'accustomed irony,' which may perhaps be expected to sleep
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