| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare: He's within, sir, but not to be spoken withal.
VINCENTIO.
What if a man bring him a hundred pound or two to make
merry withal?
PEDANT.
Keep your hundred pounds to yourself: he shall need none so
long as I live.
PETRUCHIO.
Nay, I told you your son was well beloved in Padua. Do
you hear, sir? To leave frivolous circumstances, I pray you tell
Signior Lucentio that his father is come from Pisa, and is here
The Taming of the Shrew |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Emmuska Orczy: accomplish. You spoke of my mood just now; well! we will call it
that, if you will. I wished to speak to you. . .because. . .because I
was in trouble. . .and had need. . .of your sympathy."
"It is yours to command, Madame."
"How cold you are!" she sighed. "Faith! I can scarce believe
that but a few months ago one tear in my eye had set you well-nigh
crazy. Now I come to you. . .with a half-broken heart. . .and. . .
and. . ."
"I pray you, Madame," he said, whilst his voice shook almost
as much as hers, "in what way can I serve you?"
"Percy!--Armand is in deadly danger. A letter of his. . .
The Scarlet Pimpernel |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Gorgias by Plato: are imitators, and minister to the weaker side of human nature. That
poetry is akin to rhetoric may be compared with the analogous notion, which
occurs in the Protagoras, that the ancient poets were the Sophists of their
day. In some other respects the Protagoras rather offers a contrast than a
parallel. The character of Protagoras may be compared with that of
Gorgias, but the conception of happiness is different in the two dialogues;
being described in the former, according to the old Socratic notion, as
deferred or accumulated pleasure, while in the Gorgias, and in the Phaedo,
pleasure and good are distinctly opposed.
This opposition is carried out from a speculative point of view in the
Philebus. There neither pleasure nor wisdom are allowed to be the chief
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