| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from On Horsemanship by Xenophon: out to be removed; in place of which the corselet ought to have some
extra flaps[6] at the joints, which as the outstretched arm is raised
unfold, and as the arm descends close tight again. The arm itself,[7]
it seems to us, will better be protected by a piece like a greave
stretched over it than bound up with the corselet. Again, the part
exposed when the right hand is raised should be covered close to the
corselet either with calfskin or with metal; or else there will be a
want of protection just at the most vital point.
[6] {prosthetai}, "moveable," "false." For {gigglumois} L. & S. cf.
Hipp. 411. 12; Aristot. "de An." iii. 10. 9 = "ball-and-socket
joints."
On Horsemanship |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Herbert West: Reanimator by H. P. Lovecraft: strong opinion that consciousness, reason, and personality can
exist independently of the brain -- that man has no central connective
spirit, but is merely a machine of nervous matter, each section
more or less complete in itself. In one triumphant demonstration
West was about to relegate the mystery of life to the category
of myth. The body now twitched more vigorously, and beneath our
avid eyes commenced to heave in a frightful way. The arms stirred
disquietingly, the legs drew up, and various muscles contracted
in a repulsive kind of writhing. Then the headless thing threw
out its arms in a gesture which was unmistakably one of desperation
-- an intelligent desperation apparently sufficient to prove every
Herbert West: Reanimator |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Vicar of Tours by Honore de Balzac: Birotteau, had neither home, nor means, nor furniture!
Fortunately Mademoiselle Salomon happened to drive past the house, and
the porter, who saw and comprehended the despair of the poor abbe,
made a sign to the coachman. After exchanging a few words with
Mademoiselle Salomon the porter persuaded the vicar to let himself be
placed, half dead as he was, in the carriage of his faithful friend,
to whom he was unable to speak connectedly. Mademoiselle Salomon,
alarmed at the momentary derangement of a head that was always feeble,
took him back at once to the Alouette, believing that this beginning
of mental alienation was an effect produced by the sudden news of Abbe
Poirel's nomination. She knew nothing, of course, of the fatal
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