| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Bickerstaff-Partridge Papers by Jonathan Swift: am not dead, and how dare you affront me in this manner?
Alack-a-day, replies the fellow, why 'tis in print, and the whole
town knows you are dead; why, there's Mr. White the joiner is but
fitting screws to your coffin, he'll be here with it in an
instant: he was afraid you would have wanted it before this time.
Sirrah, Sirrah, says I, you shall know tomorrow to your cost,
that I am alive, and alive like to be. Why, 'tis strange, sir,
says he, you should make such a secret of your death to us that
are your neighbours; it looks as if you had a design to defraud
the church of its dues; and let me tell you, for one that has
lived so long by the heavens, that's unhandsomely done. Hist,
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Laches by Plato: their sons for the improvement of their minds?
LACHES: Very true.
SOCRATES: Then must we not first know the nature of virtue? For how can
we advise any one about the best mode of attaining something of which we
are wholly ignorant?
LACHES: I do not think that we can, Socrates.
SOCRATES: Then, Laches, we may presume that we know the nature of virtue?
LACHES: Yes.
SOCRATES: And that which we know we must surely be able to tell?
LACHES: Certainly.
SOCRATES: I would not have us begin, my friend, with enquiring about the
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Gods of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs: more. "Let no man move till I am done. A single sword
thrust here to-day may plunge Helium into a bitter and
bloody war the results of which none can foresee. It
will turn brother against brother and father against son.
No man's life is worth that sacrifice. Rather would I
submit to the biased judgment of Zat Arras than be the
cause of civil strife in Helium.
"Let us each give in a point to the other, and let this entire
matter rest until Tardos Mors returns, or Mors Kajak, his son.
If neither be back at the end of a year a second trial
may be held--the thing has a precedent." And then turning
The Gods of Mars |
