| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad: they would not stir till Mr. Kurtz gave the word. His ascendancy
was extraordinary. The camps of these people surrounded the place,
and the chiefs came every day to see him. They would crawl.
. . . `I don't want to know anything of the ceremonies used
when approaching Mr. Kurtz,' I shouted. Curious, this feeling
that came over me that such details would be more intolerable
than those heads drying on the stakes under Mr. Kurtz's windows.
After all, that was only a savage sight, while I seemed at one bound
to have been transported into some lightless region of subtle horrors,
where pure, uncomplicated savagery was a positive relief,
being something that had a right to exist--obviously--in the sunshine.
Heart of Darkness |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Lysis by Plato: marriage. The very meaning of the word has become slighter and more
superficial; it seems almost to be borrowed from the ancients, and has
nearly disappeared in modern treatises on Moral Philosophy. The received
examples of friendship are to be found chiefly among the Greeks and Romans.
Hence the casuistical or other questions which arise out of the relations
of friends have not often been considered seriously in modern times. Many
of them will be found to be the same which are discussed in the Lysis. We
may ask with Socrates, 1) whether friendship is 'of similars or
dissimilars,' or of both; 2) whether such a tie exists between the good
only and for the sake of the good; or 3) whether there may not be some
peculiar attraction, which draws together 'the neither good nor evil' for
Lysis |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Misalliance by George Bernard Shaw: a few inches from his nose. He recoils from the bath with a violent
start]._ Oh Lord! My brain's gone. _[Calling piteously]_
Chickabiddy! _[He staggers down to the writing table]._
THE MAN. _[coming out of the bath, pistol in hand]_ Another sound;
and youre a dead man.
TARLETON. _[braced]_ Am I? Well, youre a live one: thats one
comfort. I thought you were a ghost. _[He sits down, quite
undisturbed by the pistol]_ Who are you; and what the devil were you
doing in my new Turkish bath?
THE MAN. _[with tragic intensity]_ I am the son of Lucinda Titmus.
TARLETON. _[the name conveying nothing to him]_ Indeed? And how is
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