| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Enemies of Books by William Blades: of works, the very existence of which set the ears of all lovers
of Shakespeare a-tingling.
In the summer of 1877, a gentleman with whom I was well acquainted
took lodgings in Preston Street, Brighton. The morning
after his arrival, he found in the w.c. some leaves of an old
black-letter book. He asked permission to retain them,
and enquired if there were any more where they came from.
Two or three other fragments were found, and the landlady stated
that her father, who was fond of antiquities, had at one time
a chest full of old black-letter books; that, upon his death,
they were preserved till she was tired of seeing them, and then,
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Lysis by Plato: accidentally clinging to him, and he yearns for wisdom as the cure of the
evil. (Symp.)
After this explanation has been received with triumphant accord, a fresh
dissatisfaction begins to steal over the mind of Socrates: Must not
friendship be for the sake of some ulterior end? and what can that final
cause or end of friendship be, other than the good? But the good is
desired by us only as the cure of evil; and therefore if there were no evil
there would be no friendship. Some other explanation then has to be
devised. May not desire be the source of friendship? And desire is of
what a man wants and of what is congenial to him. But then the congenial
cannot be the same as the like; for like, as has been already shown, cannot
Lysis |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Child of Storm by H. Rider Haggard: that this little man, who has but conquered a little tribe by borrowing
the wit of Macumazahn here, should be rewarded not only with a
chieftainship, but with the hand of the wisest and most beautiful of the
King's daughters, even though Umbelazi," he added, with a sneer, "should
be willing to throw him his own sister like a bone to a passing dog."
"Who threw the bone, Cetewayo?" asked Umbelazi, awaking out of his
indifference. "Was it the King, or was it I, who never heard of the
matter till this moment? And who are we that we should question the
King's decrees? Is it our business to judge or to obey?"
"Has Saduko perchance made you a present of some of those cattle which
he stole from the Amakoba, Umbelazi?" asked Cetewayo. "As our father
Child of Storm |
