| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Economist by Xenophon: requires a great body."
Accordingly I put to her this question:[5] "Tell me, my wife, would
you esteem me a less lovable co-partner in our wealth, were I to show
you how our fortune stands exactly, without boasting of unreal
possessions or concealing what we really have? Or would you prefer
that I should try to cheat you with exaggeration, exhibiting false
money to you, or sham[6] necklaces, or flaunting purples[7] which will
lose their colour, stating they are genuine the while?"
[5] Lit. "So I said to her, 'Tell me, my wife, after which fashion
would you find me the more delectable partner in our joint estate
--were I to . . .? or were I to . . .?'"
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Land that Time Forgot by Edgar Rice Burroughs: As soon as I had assured myself that such was the case, I made my
preparations to follow and rescue her. Olson, Whitely, and
Wilson each wished to accompany me; but I told them that they
were needed here, since with Bradley's party still absent and the
Germans gone it was necessary that we conserve our force as far
as might be possible.
Chapter 8
It was a sad leave-taking as in silence I shook hands with each
of the three remaining men. Even poor Nobs appeared dejected as
we quit the compound and set out upon the well-marked spoor of
the abductor. Not once did I turn my eyes backward toward
The Land that Time Forgot |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia by Samuel Johnson: to vigilance and carelessness.
"But the knowledge of nature is only half the task of a poet; he
must be acquainted likewise with all the modes of life. His
character requires that he estimate the happiness and misery of
every condition, observe the power of all the passions in all their
combinations, and trace the changes of the human mind, as they are
modified by various institutions and accidental influences of
climate or custom, from the sprightliness of infancy to the
despondence of decrepitude. He must divest himself of the
prejudices of his age and country; he must consider right and wrong
in their abstracted and invariable state; he must disregard present
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