| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Poems by T. S. Eliot: Le repassant aux étapes de sa vie antérieure.
Figurez-vous donc, c'etait un sort penible;
Cependant, ce fut jadis un bel homme, de haute taille.
Whispers of Immortality
Webster was much possessed by death
And saw the skull beneath the skin;
And breastless creatures under ground
Leaned backward with a lipless grin.
Daffodil bulbs instead of balls
Stared from the sockets of the eyes!
He knew that thought clings round dead limbs
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Apology by Plato: which I corrupt the youth, as you say.
Yes, that I say emphatically.
Then, by the gods, Meletus, of whom we are speaking, tell me and the court,
in somewhat plainer terms, what you mean! for I do not as yet understand
whether you affirm that I teach other men to acknowledge some gods, and
therefore that I do believe in gods, and am not an entire atheist--this you
do not lay to my charge,--but only you say that they are not the same gods
which the city recognizes--the charge is that they are different gods. Or,
do you mean that I am an atheist simply, and a teacher of atheism?
I mean the latter--that you are a complete atheist.
What an extraordinary statement! Why do you think so, Meletus? Do you
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Salammbo by Gustave Flaubert: simultaneously. Some Epirote shepherds ran upon the left squadron of
the Clinabarians, and whirling their staves, seized the horses by the
man; the animals threw their riders and fled across the plain. The
Punic slingers scattered here and there stood gaping. The phalanx
began to waver, the captains ran to and fro in distraction, the
rearmost in the files were pressing upon the soldiers, and the
Barbarians had re-formed; they were recovering; the victory was
theirs.
But a cry, a terrible cry broke forth, a roar of pain and wrath: it
came from the seventy-two elephants which were rushing on in double
line, Hamilcar having waited until the Mercenaries were massed
Salammbo |
