| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs: body to topple the devoted secretary from the limb.
For a moment they swayed uncertainly, and then, with
mingled and most unscholarly shrieks, they pitched headlong
from the tree, locked in frenzied embrace.
It was quite some moments ere either moved, for both
were positive that any such attempt would reveal so many
breaks and fractures as to make further progress impossible.
At length Professor Porter made an attempt to move one leg.
To his surprise, it responded to his will as in days gone
by. He now drew up its mate and stretched it forth again.
"Most remarkable, most remarkable," he murmured.
Tarzan of the Apes |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Protagoras by Plato: the meaning of the expression 'overcome by pleasure'; and the whole
argument turns upon this. And even now, if you see any possible way in
which evil can be explained as other than pain, or good as other than
pleasure, you may still retract. Are you satisfied, then, at having a life
of pleasure which is without pain? If you are, and if you are unable to
show any good or evil which does not end in pleasure and pain, hear the
consequences:--If what you say is true, then the argument is absurd which
affirms that a man often does evil knowingly, when he might abstain,
because he is seduced and overpowered by pleasure; or again, when you say
that a man knowingly refuses to do what is good because he is overcome at
the moment by pleasure. And that this is ridiculous will be evident if
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Sons and Lovers by D. H. Lawrence: It's not so with me. I should want a knife or a pistol or something
to fight with."
"Then you'd better carry something," she said.
"Nay," he laughed; "I'm not daggeroso."
"But he'll do something to you. You don't know him."
"All right," he said, "we'll see."
"And you'll let him?"
"Perhaps, if I can't help it."
"And if he kills you?" she said.
"I should be sorry, for his sake and mine."
Clara was silent for a moment.
Sons and Lovers |
