The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Apology by Plato: have conciliated the favour of the dicasts;' and who informs us in another
passage, on the testimony of Hermogenes, the friend of Socrates, that he
had no wish to live; and that the divine sign refused to allow him to
prepare a defence, and also that Socrates himself declared this to be
unnecessary, on the ground that all his life long he had been preparing
against that hour. For the speech breathes throughout a spirit of
defiance, (ut non supplex aut reus sed magister aut dominus videretur esse
judicum' (Cic. de Orat.); and the loose and desultory style is an imitation
of the 'accustomed manner' in which Socrates spoke in 'the agora and among
the tables of the money-changers.' The allusion in the Crito may, perhaps,
be adduced as a further evidence of the literal accuracy of some parts.
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from La Grande Breteche by Honore de Balzac: "Foreseeing what would certainly happen in his absence, he had laid
this trap for his wife; he had merely written to the Maire and sent
for Duvivier. The jeweler arrived just as the disorder in the room had
been repaired.
" 'Duvivier,' asked Monsieur de Merret, 'did not you buy some
crucifixes of the Spaniards who passed through the town?'
" 'No, monsieur.'
" 'Very good; thank you,' said he, flashing a tiger's glare at his
wife. 'Jean,' he added, turning to his confidential valet, 'you can
serve my meals here in Madame de Merret's room. She is ill, and I
shall not leave her till she recovers.'
La Grande Breteche |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from At the Sign of the Cat & Racket by Honore de Balzac: the assistants did not rise before dessert; they were allowed to talk,
and the abundant meal spoke of ease without luxury. The fashionable
woman found some tickets for a box at the Francais, where she
remembered having seen her sister from time to time. Madame Lebas had
a cashmere shawl over her shoulders, of which the value bore witness
to her husband's generosity to her. In short, the couple were keeping
pace with the times. During the two-thirds of the day she spent there,
Augustine was touched to the heart by the equable happiness, devoid,
to be sure, of all emotion, but equally free from storms, enjoyed by
this well-matched couple. They had accepted life as a commercial
enterprise, in which, above all, they must do credit to the business.
|