| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain: with a polite phrase or two, that this was none of her
business. The bugles rang again; and we separated
and rode to the ends of the lists, and took position.
Now old Merlin stepped into view and cast a dainty
web of gossamer threads over Sir Sagramor which
turned him into Hamlet's ghost; the king made a
sign, the bugles blew, Sir Sagramor laid his great
lance in rest, and the next moment here he came
thundering down the course with his veil flying out
behind, and I went whistling through the air like an
arrow to meet him -- cocking my ear the while, as if
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Caesar's Commentaries in Latin by Julius Caesar: venit, quem supra demonstraveram a Caesare in Britanniam praemissum. Hunc
illi e navi egressum, cum ad eos oratoris modo Caesaris mandata deferret,
comprehenderant atque in vincula coniecerant; tum proelio facto remiserunt
et in petenda pace eius rei culpam in multitudinem contulerunt et propter
imprudentiam ut ignosceretur petiverunt. Caesar questus quod, cum ultro
in continentem legatis missis pacem ab se petissent, bellum sine causa
intulissent, ignoscere imprudentiae dixit obsidesque imperavit;
quorum illi partem statim dederunt, partem ex longinquioribus locis
arcessitam paucis diebus sese daturos dixerunt. Interea suos in agros
remigrare iusserunt, principesque undique convenire et se civitatesque
suas Caesari commendare coeperunt.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Symposium by Xenophon: [16] Or, "petitioners for offices of state." Reading {spoudarkhiais}.
Whereat Socrates: When will you have done with your gibes, Callias?
Why, because you have yourself spent sums of money on Protagoras,[17]
and Gorgias, and Prodicus, and a host of others, to learn wisdom, must
you pour contempt on us poor fellows, who are but self-taught
tinkers[18] in philosophy compared with you?
[17] As to Protagoras of Abdera, Gorgias of Leontini, Prodicus of
Ceos, see Plat. "Prot." 314 C, "Rep." x. 600 C, "Apol." 19 E;
"Anab." II. vi. 17; "Mem." II. i. 21; "Encyc. Brit." "Sophists,"
H. Jackson.
[18] Or, "hand-to-mouth cultivators of philosophy," "roturiers." Cf.
The Symposium |
