| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde: Sigismondo Malatesta, the lover of Isotta and the lord of Rimini,
whose effigy was burned at Rome as the enemy of God and man,
who strangled Polyssena with a napkin, and gave poison
to Ginevra d'Este in a cup of emerald, and in honour of a
shameful passion built a pagan church for Christian worship;
Charles VI, who had so wildly adored his brother's wife that a
leper had warned him of the insanity that was coming on him,
and who, when his brain had sickened and grown strange,
could only be soothed by Saracen cards painted with the images
of love and death and madness; and, in his trimmed jerkin
and jewelled cap and acanthuslike curls, Grifonetto Baglioni,
The Picture of Dorian Gray |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Republic by Plato: force or persuasion, they compliment with the name of sailor, pilot, able
seaman, and abuse the other sort of man, whom they call a good-for-nothing;
but that the true pilot must pay attention to the year and seasons and sky
and stars and winds, and whatever else belongs to his art, if he intends to
be really qualified for the command of a ship, and that he must and will be
the steerer, whether other people like or not--the possibility of this
union of authority with the steerer's art has never seriously entered into
their thoughts or been made part of their calling. Now in vessels which
are in a state of mutiny and by sailors who are mutineers, how will the
true pilot be regarded? Will he not be called by them a prater, a
star-gazer, a good-for-nothing?
The Republic |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Odyssey by Homer: a bard with such a divine voice as this man has. There is
nothing better or more delightful than when a whole people make
merry together, with the guests sitting orderly to listen, while
the table is loaded with bread and meats, and the cup-bearer
draws wine and fills his cup for every man. This is indeed as
fair a sight as a man can see. Now, however, since you are
inclined to ask the story of my sorrows, and rekindle my own sad
memories in respect of them, I do not know how to begin, nor yet
how to continue and conclude my tale, for the hand of heaven has
been laid heavily upon me.
"Firstly, then, I will tell you my name that you too may know
The Odyssey |
