| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Statesman by Plato: admixture of matter in him; this was inherent in the primal nature, which
was full of disorder, until attaining to the present order. From God, the
constructor, the world received all that is good in him, but from a
previous state came elements of evil and unrighteousness, which, thence
derived, first of all passed into the world, and were then transmitted to
the animals. While the world was aided by the pilot in nurturing the
animals, the evil was small, and great the good which he produced, but
after the separation, when the world was let go, at first all proceeded
well enough; but, as time went on, there was more and more forgetting, and
the old discord again held sway and burst forth in full glory; and at last
small was the good, and great was the admixture of evil, and there was a
Statesman |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Two Brothers by Honore de Balzac: brutality that was still polite, made her shudder. As to the power of
attorney demanded by the ferocious colonel, who in the eyes of all
Issoudun was a hero, he had it as soon as he wanted it; for Flore fell
under the man's dominion as France had fallen under that of Napoleon.
Like a butterfly whose feet are caught in the incandescent wax of a
taper, Rouget rapidly dissipated his remaining strength. In presence
of that decay, the nephew remained as cold and impassible as the
diplomatists of 1814 during the convulsions of imperial France.
Philippe, who did not believe in Napoleon II., now wrote the following
letter to the minister of war, which Mariette made the Duc de
Maufrigneuse convey to that functionary:--
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Glaucus/The Wonders of the Shore by Charles Kingsley: feel to be wanton, and cowardly, and cruel, and yet cannot find in
your heart to stop, because "the lads have nothing else to do, and
at all events it keeps them out of the billiard-room;" and after
all, and worst of all, at night a soulless RECHAUFFE of third-rate
London frivolity: this is the life-in-death in which thousands
spend the golden weeks of summer, and in which you confess with a
sigh that you are going to spend them.
Now I will not be so rude as to apply to you the old hymn-distich
about one who
" - finds some mischief still
For idle hands to do:"
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