| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Golden Sayings of Epictetus by Epictetus: "The good and evil of what? a horse, an ox?"
"No; of a man."
"Do we know then what Man is? what his nature is? what is th
idea we have of him? And are our ears practised in any degree on
the subject? Nay, do you understand what Nature is? can you
follow me in any degree when I say that I shall have to use
demonstration? Do you understand what Demonstration is? what True
or False is? . . .must I drive you to Philosophy? . . .Show me
what good I am to do by discoursing with you. Rouse my desire to
do so. The sight of a pasture it loves stirs in a sheep the
desire to feed: show it a stone or a bit of bread and it remains
The Golden Sayings of Epictetus |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Letters of Two Brides by Honore de Balzac: part of servant, since that of mistress throve so ill with me before.
Ah! Renee, if Gaston has sounded, as I have, the heights and depths of
love, my happiness is assured! Nature at the chalet wears her fairest
face. The woods are charming; each step opens up to you some fresh
vista of cool greenery, which delights the soul by the sweet thoughts
it wakens. They breathe of love. If only this be not the gorgeous
theatre dressed by my hand for my own martyrdom!
In two days from now I shall be Mme. Gaston. My God! is it fitting a
Christian so to love mortal man?
"Well, at least you have the law with you," was the comment of my man
of business, who is to be one of my witnesses, and who exclaimed, on
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Odyssey by Homer: "The Authoress of the Odyssey" pp. 132-133.
{93} Tradition says that she had hanged herself. Cf. "Odyssey"
xv. 355, etc.
{94} Not to be confounded with Aeolus king of the winds.
{95} Melampus, vide book xv. 223, etc.
{96} I have already said in a note on bk. xi. 186 that at this
point of Ulysses' voyage Telemachus could only be between eleven
and twelve years old.
{97} Is the writer a man or a woman?
{98} Cf. "Il." iv. 521, [Greek]. The Odyssean line reads,
[Greek]. The famous dactylism, therefore, of the Odyssean line
The Odyssey |
