| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from La Grenadiere by Honore de Balzac: feeling that happiness is in the air, without a glimpse of all that is
meant by a peaceful life without care or ambition. There is that in
the air and the sound of the river that sets you dreaming; the sands
have a language, and are joyous or dreary, golden or wan; and the
owner of the vineyard may sit motionless amid perennial flowers and
tempting fruit, and feel all the stir of the world about him.
If an Englishman takes the house for the summer, he is asked a
thousand francs for six months, the produce of the vineyard not
included. If the tenant wishes for the orchard fruit, the rent is
doubled; for the vintage, it is doubled again. What can La Grenadiere
be worth, you wonder; La Grenadiere, with its stone staircase, its
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Iliad by Homer: in all directions--even so did the Danaans stand firm and
unflinching against the Trojans. The son of Atreus went about
among them and exhorted them. "My friends," said he, "quit
yourselves like brave men, and shun dishonour in one another's
eyes amid the stress of battle. They that shun dishonour more
often live than get killed, but they that fly save neither life
nor name."
As he spoke he hurled his spear and hit one of those who were in
the front rank, the comrade of Aeneas, Deicoon son of Pergasus,
whom the Trojans held in no less honour than the sons of Priam,
for he was ever quick to place himself among the foremost. The
The Iliad |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Euthyphro by Plato: from jealousy, they are angry.
EUTHYPHRO: I am never likely to try their temper in this way.
SOCRATES: I dare say not, for you are reserved in your behaviour, and
seldom impart your wisdom. But I have a benevolent habit of pouring out
myself to everybody, and would even pay for a listener, and I am afraid
that the Athenians may think me too talkative. Now if, as I was saying,
they would only laugh at me, as you say that they laugh at you, the time
might pass gaily enough in the court; but perhaps they may be in earnest,
and then what the end will be you soothsayers only can predict.
EUTHYPHRO: I dare say that the affair will end in nothing, Socrates, and
that you will win your cause; and I think that I shall win my own.
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