| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Mirror of the Sea by Joseph Conrad: were too early in the field. The want shall never be felt because,
free of the trammels of the tide, easy of access, magnificent and
desolate, they are already there, prepared to take and keep the
biggest ships that float upon the sea. They are worthy of the
oldest river port in the world.
And, truth to say, for all the criticisms flung upon the heads of
the dock companies, the other docks of the Thames are no disgrace
to the town with a population greater than that of some
commonwealths. The growth of London as a well-equipped port has
been slow, while not unworthy of a great capital, of a great centre
of distribution. It must not be forgotten that London has not the
The Mirror of the Sea |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Sophist by Plato: THEAETETUS: That is the common name for it.
STRANGER: But now who the other is, who makes money out of private
disputation, it is your turn to say.
THEAETETUS: There is only one true answer: he is the wonderful Sophist,
of whom we are in pursuit, and who reappears again for the fourth time.
STRANGER: Yes, and with a fresh pedigree, for he is the money-making
species of the Eristic, disputatious, controversial, pugnacious, combative,
acquisitive family, as the argument has already proven.
THEAETETUS: Certainly.
STRANGER: How true was the observation that he was a many-sided animal,
and not to be caught with one hand, as they say!
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Emma by Jane Austen: silent when Mrs. Cole told us of it at dinner."
"You take up an idea, Mrs. Weston, and run away with it; as you have
many a time reproached me with doing. I see no sign of attachment--
I believe nothing of the pianoforte--and proof only shall convince
me that Mr. Knightley has any thought of marrying Jane Fairfax."
They combated the point some time longer in the same way; Emma rather
gaining ground over the mind of her friend; for Mrs. Weston was
the most used of the two to yield; till a little bustle in the room
shewed them that tea was over, and the instrument in preparation;--
and at the same moment Mr. Cole approaching to entreat Miss Woodhouse
would do them the honour of trying it. Frank Churchill, of whom,
Emma |
