| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Dreams & Dust by Don Marquis: Sardonyx and chalcedony,
Enkindling diamond, candid gold,
Red rubies and red garnets bold:
And all their humors should be blent
In one intolerable blaze,
Barbaric, fierce, and opulent,
To dazzle him that dared to gaze!
Alack-a-day for poverty:
My rhymes are all you get of me!
Yet, if your heart receive, behold!
The worthless words are set in gold.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Commission in Lunacy by Honore de Balzac: quite unworthy of his name and rank'--well, we may live as we please--
'that he keeps his two children there, the Comte Clement d'Espard and
Vicomte Camille d'Espard, in a style of living quite unsuited to their
future prospects, their name and fortune; that he often wants money,
to such a point, that not long since the landlord, one Mariast, put in
an execution on the furniture in the rooms; that when this execution
was carried out in his presence, the Marquis d'Espard helped the
bailiff, whom he treated like a man of rank, paying him all the marks
of attention and respect which he would have shown to a person of
superior birth and dignity to himself.' "
The uncle and nephew glanced at each other and laughed.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Apology by Xenophon: you not see, SOcrates, how often Athenian juries[8] are constrained by
arguments to put quite innocent people to death, and not less often to
acquit the guilty, either through some touch of pity excited by the
pleadings, or that the defendant had skill to turn some charming
phrase?" Thus appealed to, Socrates replied: "Nay, solemnly I tell
you, twice already I have essayed to consider my defence, and twice
the divinity[9] hinders me"; and to the remark of Hermogenes, "That is
strange!" he answered again: "Strange, do you call it, that to God it
should seem better for me to die at once? Do you not know that up to
this moment I will not concede to any man to have lived a better life
than I have; since what can exceed the pleasure, which has been mine,
The Apology |
