| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Symposium by Xenophon: the man who is content with what he has will least of all be prone to
clutch at what is his neighbour's.
[63] Or, "turn to the storehouse of a healthy appetite." See "Apol."
18, the same sentiment "ex ore Socratis."
[64] See Athen. "Deipnos." i. 28.
And here's a point worth noting. Wealth of my sort will make you
liberal of soul. Look at Socrates; from him it was I got these riches.
He did not supply me with it by weight or by measure, but just as much
as I could carry, he with bounteous hand consigned to me. And I, too,
grudge it to no man now. To all my friends without distinction I am
ready to display my opulence: come one, come all; and whosoever likes
The Symposium |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Forged Coupon by Leo Tolstoy: Well, what is your price?"
Ivan Mironov began by asking a high price,
but reduced it once, and finished by selling the
cartload for just what it had cost him.
"I'm giving it to you cheap, just to please you,
sir.--Besides, I am glad it is not a long way to
your house," he added.
Eugene Mihailovich did not bargain very much.
He did not mind paying a little more, because he
was delighted to think he could make use of the
coupon and get rid of it. With great difficulty
The Forged Coupon |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Research Magnificent by H. G. Wells: midday dinner table, one imagines him keeping up high aspirations in
a rather too hastily scribbled sermon in the school pulpit, or
keeping up an enthusiasm for beautiful language in a badly-prepared
lesson on Virgil, or expressing unreal indignation and unjustifiably
exalted sentiments to evil doers, and one realizes his disadvantage
against the quiet youngster whose retentive memory was storing up
all these impressions for an ultimate judgment, and one understands,
too, a certain relief that mingled with his undeniable emotion when
at last the time came for young Benham, "the one living purpose" of
his life, to be off to Minchinghampton and the next step in the
mysterious ascent of the English educational system.
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