| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Vailima Letters by Robert Louis Stevenson: farce; I could have laughed aloud to hear, and could make you
laugh by repeating, but laughter was not uppermost.
This morning at about seven, I set off after the lost sheep.
I could have no horse; all that could be mounted - we have
one girth-sore and one dead-lame in the establishment - were
due at a picnic about 10.30. The morning was very wet, and I
set off barefoot, with my trousers over my knees, and a
macintosh. Presently I had to take a side path in the bush;
missed it; came forth in a great oblong patch of taro
solemnly surrounded by forest - no soul, no sign, no sound -
and as I stood there at a loss, suddenly between the showers
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from She Stoops to Conquer by Oliver Goldsmith: modesty, forsooth!
MISS HARDCASTLE. But if I shortly convince you of his modesty, that he
has only the faults that will pass off with time, and the virtues that
will improve with age, I hope you'll forgive him.
HARDCASTLE. The girl would actually make one run mad! I tell you,
I'll not be convinced. I am convinced. He has scarce been three hours
in the house, and he has already encroached on all my prerogatives.
You may like his impudence, and call it modesty; but my son-in-law,
madam, must have very different qualifications.
MISS HARDCASTLE. Sir, I ask but this night to convince you.
HARDCASTLE. You shall not have half the time, for I have thoughts of
She Stoops to Conquer |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Alcibiades II by Platonic Imitator: really do such a thing; but there is nothing, you think, to prevent a man
who is ignorant of the best, having occasionally the whim that what is
worst is best?
ALCIBIADES: No.)
SOCRATES:--If, then, you went indoors, and seeing him, did not know him,
but thought that he was some one else, would you venture to slay him?
ALCIBIADES: Most decidedly not (it seems to me). (These words are omitted
in several MSS.)
SOCRATES: For you designed to kill, not the first who offered, but
Pericles himself?
ALCIBIADES: Certainly.
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