| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Statesman by Plato: men are likely to be better governors than the unwise many, yet it is not
in their power to fashion an entire people according to their behest. When
with the best intentions the benevolent despot begins his regime, he finds
the world hard to move. A succession of good kings has at the end of a
century left the people an inert and unchanged mass. The Roman world was
not permanently improved by the hundred years of Hadrian and the Antonines.
The kings of Spain during the last century were at least equal to any
contemporary sovereigns in virtue and ability. In certain states of the
world the means are wanting to render a benevolent power effectual. These
means are not a mere external organisation of posts or telegraphs, hardly
the introduction of new laws or modes of industry. A change must be made
Statesman |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Secrets of the Princesse de Cadignan by Honore de Balzac: She rose and went to the window with a gait and bearing magnificent in
motifs.
D'Arthez remained on the low seat to which he had returned not daring
to follow the princess; but he looked at her; he heard her blowing her
nose. Was there ever a princess who blew her nose? but Diane attempted
the impossible to convey an idea of her sensibility. D'Arthez believed
his angel was in tears; he rushed to her side, took her round the
waist, and pressed her to his heart.
"No, no, leave me!" she murmured in a feeble voice. "I have too many
doubts to be good for anything. To reconcile me with life is a task
beyond the powers of any man."
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Philosophy 4 by Owen Wister: extract of beef, and drops of perspiration continued to trickle from
their matted hair.
II
Bertie and Billy were sophomores. They had been alive for twenty years,
and were young. Their tutor was also a sophomore. He too had been
alive for twenty years, but never yet had become young. Bertie and
Billy had colonial names (Rogers, I think, and Schuyler), but the
tutor's name was Oscar Maironi, and he was charging his pupils five
dollars an hour each for his instruction. Do not think this excessive.
Oscar could have tutored a whole class of irresponsibles, and by that
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