| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Father Goriot by Honore de Balzac: would "never make anything out of that man yonder," in the
Countess' forcible phrase. The Countess seemed to have been a
judge of character. Mme. Vauquer's aversion was naturally more
energetic than her friendship, for her hatred was not in
proportion to her love, but to her disappointed expectations. The
human heart may find here and there a resting-place short of the
highest height of affection, but we seldom stop in the steep,
downward slope of hatred. Still, M. Goriot was a lodger, and the
widow's wounded self-love could not vent itself in an explosion
of wrath; like a monk harassed by the prior of his convent, she
was forced to stifle her sighs of disappointment, and to gulp
Father Goriot |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Menexenus by Plato: him. And several of the citations of Aristotle omit the name of Plato, and
some of them omit the name of the dialogue from which they are taken.
Prior, however, to the enquiry about the writings of a particular author,
general considerations which equally affect all evidence to the genuineness
of ancient writings are the following: Shorter works are more likely to
have been forged, or to have received an erroneous designation, than longer
ones; and some kinds of composition, such as epistles or panegyrical
orations, are more liable to suspicion than others; those, again, which
have a taste of sophistry in them, or the ring of a later age, or the
slighter character of a rhetorical exercise, or in which a motive or some
affinity to spurious writings can be detected, or which seem to have
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne: and they gave 12,000 yards, 14,000 yards, and 15,000 yards.
To sum up all, it is reckoned that if the bottom of the sea were levelled,
its mean depth would be about one and three-quarter leagues."
"Well, Professor," replied the Captain, "we shall show you better
than that I hope. As to the mean depth of this part of the Pacific,
I tell you it is only 4,000 yards."
Having said this, Captain Nemo went towards the panel,
and disappeared down the ladder. I followed him, and went into
the large drawing-room. The screw was immediately put in motion,
and the log gave twenty miles an hour.
During the days and weeks that passed, Captain Nemo
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea |
