| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Master of the World by Jules Verne: My first care was to look forward, backward, and on both sides of the
speeding "Terror." Everywhere a vast expanse of waves! Not a shore in
sight! Nothing but the horizon formed by sea and sky!
Whether it was a lake or the ocean I could easily settle. As we shot
forward at such speed the water cut by the bow, rose furiously upward
on either side, and the spray lashed savagely against me.
I tasted it. It was fresh water, and very probably that of Lake Erie.
The sun was but midway toward the zenith so it could scarcely be more
than seven or eight hours since the moment when the "Terror" had
darted from Black Rock Creek.
This must therefore be the following morning, that of the
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Philebus by Plato: For, as I say, we have to discover what is pleasure, and what they mean by
pleasure who deny her very existence.
PROTARCHUS: I think I follow you.
SOCRATES: You will soon have a better opportunity of showing whether you
do or not, Protarchus. Answer now, and tell me whether you see, I will not
say more, but more intense and excessive pleasures in wantonness than in
temperance? Reflect before you speak.
PROTARCHUS: I understand you, and see that there is a great difference
between them; the temperate are restrained by the wise man's aphorism of
'Never too much,' which is their rule, but excess of pleasure possessing
the minds of fools and wantons becomes madness and makes them shout with
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Taras Bulba and Other Tales by Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol: Yes, and my lodgers have been with me seven years, the
lieutenant-colonel, Anna Petrovna Buchmisteroff. No, I tell you, there
is no worse lodger than a painter: he lives like a pig--God have
mercy!"
The poor artist had to listen patiently to all this. Meanwhile the
officer had occupied himself with examining the pictures and studies,
and showed that his mind was more advanced than the landlord's, and
that he was not insensible to artistic impressions.
"Heh!" said he, tapping one canvas, on which was depicted a naked
woman, "this subject is--lively. But why so much black under her nose?
did she take snuff?"
Taras Bulba and Other Tales |
