| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Complete Angler by Izaak Walton: tape or packthread to a spit, and roast him leisurely; and baste him with
water and salt till his skin breaks, and then with butter; and having
roasted him enough, let what was put into his belly, and what he drips,
be his sauce. S. F.
When I go to dress an Eel thus, I wish he were as long and as big as that
which was caught in Peterborough river, in the year 1667; which was a
yard and three quarters long. If you will not believe me, then go and see
at one of the coffee-houses in King Street in Westminster.
But now let me tell you, that though the Eel, thus drest, be not only
excellent good, but more harmless than any other way, yet it is certain
that physicians account the Eel dangerous meat; I will advise you
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The House of Dust by Conrad Aiken: And, as it is with this, so too with all things.
The pages of our lives are blurred palimpsest:
New lines are wreathed on old lines half-erased,
And those on older still; and so forever.
The old shines through the new, and colors it.
What's new? What's old? All things have double meanings,--
All things return. I write a line with passion
(Or touch a woman's hand, or plumb a doctrine)
Only to find the same thing, done before,--
Only to know the same thing comes to-morrow. . . .
This curious riddled dream I dreamed last night,--
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Protagoras by Plato: Then now, I said, I will endeavour to explain to you my opinion about this
poem of Simonides. There is a very ancient philosophy which is more
cultivated in Crete and Lacedaemon than in any other part of Hellas, and
there are more philosophers in those countries than anywhere else in the
world. This, however, is a secret which the Lacedaemonians deny; and they
pretend to be ignorant, just because they do not wish to have it thought
that they rule the world by wisdom, like the Sophists of whom Protagoras
was speaking, and not by valour of arms; considering that if the reason of
their superiority were disclosed, all men would be practising their wisdom.
And this secret of theirs has never been discovered by the imitators of
Lacedaemonian fashions in other cities, who go about with their ears
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