| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Records of a Family of Engineers by Robert Louis Stevenson: sea-beach; the roof flagged, loaded with earth, and perforated
by a single hole for the escape of smoke. The grass grew
beautifully green on the flat house-top, where the family
would assemble with their dogs and cats, as on a pastoral
lawn; there were no windows, and in my grandfather's
expression, `there was really no demonstration of a house
unless it were the diminutive door.' He once landed on
Ronaldsay with two friends. The inhabitants crowded and
pressed so much upon the strangers that the bailiff, or
resident factor of the island, blew with his ox-horn, calling
out to the natives to stand off and let the gentlemen come
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Sylvie and Bruno by Lewis Carroll: him.
"What's your name, little one?" I began, in as soft a voice as I could
manage. And, by the way, why is it we always begin by asking little
children their names? Is it because we fancy a name will help to make
them a little bigger? You never thought of as king a real large man
his name, now, did you? But, however that may be, I felt it quite
necessary to know his name; so, as he didn't answer my question,
I asked it again a little louder. "What's your name, my little man?"
"What's oors?" he said, without looking up.
I told him my name quite gently, for he was much too small to be angry
with.
Sylvie and Bruno |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Republic by Plato: him beware of being the slave of crotchets, or of running after a Will o'
the Wisp in his ignorance, or in his vanity of attributing to himself the
gifts of a poet or assuming the air of a philosopher. He should know the
limits of his own powers. Better to build up the mind by slow additions,
to creep on quietly from one thing to another, to gain insensibly new
powers and new interests in knowledge, than to form vast schemes which are
never destined to be realized. But perhaps, as Plato would say, 'This is
part of another subject' (Tim.); though we may also defend our digression
by his example (Theaet.).
4. We remark with surprise that the progress of nations or the natural
growth of institutions which fill modern treatises on political philosophy
The Republic |
