| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Menexenus by Plato: spurious character. For who always does justice to himself, or who writes
with equal care at all times? Certainly not Plato, who exhibits the
greatest differences in dramatic power, in the formation of sentences, and
in the use of words, if his earlier writings are compared with his later
ones, say the Protagoras or Phaedrus with the Laws. Or who can be expected
to think in the same manner during a period of authorship extending over
above fifty years, in an age of great intellectual activity, as well as of
political and literary transition? Certainly not Plato, whose earlier
writings are separated from his later ones by as wide an interval of
philosophical speculation as that which separates his later writings from
Aristotle.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Goodness of St. Rocque and Other Stories by Alice Dunbar: you may depend upon its being just the best kind.
This time there were twenty boys and girls, a mamma or so,
several papas, and a grizzled fisherman to restrain the ardor of
the amateurs. The cart was vast and solid, and two comfortable,
sleepy-looking mules constituted the drawing power. There were
also tin horns, some guitars, an accordion, and a quartet of much
praised voices. The hay in the bottom of the wagon was freely
mixed with pine needles, whose prickiness through your hose was
amply compensated for by its delicious fragrance.
After a triumphantly noisy passage down the beach one comes to
the stretch of heavy sand that lies between Pass Christian proper
The Goodness of St. Rocque and Other Stories |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Recruit by Honore de Balzac: had left the court at the time of the emigration. Possessing a good
deal of property in the neighborhood of Carentan, she took refuge in
that town, hoping that the influence of the Terror would be little
felt there. This expectation, based on a knowledge of the region, was
well-founded. The Revolution committed but few ravages in Lower
Normandy. Though Madame de Dey had known none but the nobles of her
own caste when she visited her property in former years, she now felt
it advisable to open her house to the principle bourgeois of the town,
and to the new governmental authorities; trying to make them pleased
at obtaining her society, without arousing either hatred or jealousy.
Gracious and kind, gifted by nature with that inexpressible charm
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