| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Woodlanders by Thomas Hardy: subjects in which he had no share. Among the excluding matters
there was, for one, the effect upon Mr. Melbury of the womanly
mien and manners of his daughter, which took him so much unawares
that, though it did not make him absolutely forget the existence
of her conductor homeward, thrust Giles's image back into quite
the obscurest cellarage of his brain. Another was his interview
with Mrs. Charmond's agent that morning, at which the lady herself
had been present for a few minutes. Melbury had purchased some
standing timber from her a long time before, and now that the date
had come for felling it he was left to pursue almost his own
course. This was what the household were actually talking of
The Woodlanders |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Euthydemus by Plato: understand, any more than Crito, that he is pursuing his vocation of
detecting the follies of mankind, which he finds 'not unpleasant.'
(Compare Apol.)
Education is the common subject of all Plato's earlier Dialogues. The
concluding remark of Crito, that he has a difficulty in educating his two
sons, and the advice of Socrates to him that he should not give up
philosophy because he has no faith in philosophers, seems to be a
preparation for the more peremptory declaration of the Meno that 'Virtue
cannot be taught because there are no teachers.'
The reasons for placing the Euthydemus early in the series are: (1) the
similarity in plan and style to the Protagoras, Charmides, and Lysis;--the
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Pierre Grassou by Honore de Balzac: When Madame Vervelle's portrait was begun that of her husband was
nearly finished, and the enthusiasm of the family knew no bounds. The
notary had spoken in the highest praise of the painter. Pierre Grassou
was, he said, one of the most honest fellows on earth; he had laid by
thirty-six thousand francs; his days of poverty were over; he now
saved about ten thousand francs a year and capitalized the interest;
in short, he was incapable of making a woman unhappy. This last remark
had enormous weight in the scales. Vervelle's friends now heard of
nothing but the celebrated painter Fougeres.
The day on which Fougeres began the portrait of Mademoiselle Virginie,
he was virtually son-in-law to the Vervelle family. The three
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