| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Ruling Passion by Henry van Dyke: "Aha! Pat," I cried; "what is this? You said you had thrown all
your pipes away. How does this come in your pocket?"
"But, m'sieu'," he answered, "this is different. This is not the
pipe pure and simple. It is a souvenir. It is the one you gave me
two years ago on the Metabetchouan, when we got the big caribou. I
could not reject this. I keep it always for the remembrance."
At this moment my hand fell upon a small, square object in the other
pocket of the coat. I pulled it out. It was a cake of Virginia
leaf. Without a word, I held it up, and looked at Patrick. He
began to explain eagerly:
"Yes, certainly, it is the tobacco, m'sieu'; but it is not for the
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Oscar Wilde Miscellaneous by Oscar Wilde: He came to me at night in a litter. He was pale as a narcissus, and
his body was like honey.
The son of the Praefect slew himself in my honour, and the Tetrarch
of Cilicia scourged himself for my pleasure before my slaves.
The King of Hierapolis who is a priest and a robber set carpets for
me to walk on.
Sometimes I sit in the circus and the gladiators fight beneath me.
Once a Thracian who was my lover was caught in the net. I gave the
signal for him to die and the whole theatre applauded. Sometimes I
pass through the gymnasium and watch the young men wrestling or in
the race. Their bodies are bright with oil and their brows are
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Menexenus by Plato: having escaped for a time. He who has present to his mind that conflict
will know what manner of men they were who received the onset of the
barbarians at Marathon, and chastened the pride of the whole of Asia, and
by the victory which they gained over the barbarians first taught other men
that the power of the Persians was not invincible, but that hosts of men
and the multitude of riches alike yield to valour. And I assert that those
men are the fathers not only of ourselves, but of our liberties and of the
liberties of all who are on the continent, for that was the action to which
the Hellenes looked back when they ventured to fight for their own safety
in the battles which ensued: they became disciples of the men of Marathon.
To them, therefore, I assign in my speech the first place, and the second
|
