| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Don Quixote by Miquel de Cervantes: this brass wire, upon this shelf, O my pen, whether of skilful make or
clumsy cut I know not; here shalt thou remain long ages hence,
unless presumptuous or malignant story-tellers take thee down to
profane thee. But ere they touch thee warn them, and, as best thou
canst, say to them:
Hold off! ye weaklings; hold your hands!
Adventure it let none,
For this emprise, my lord the king,
Was meant for me alone.
For me alone was Don Quixote born, and I for him; it was his to act,
mine to write; we two together make but one, notwithstanding and in
Don Quixote |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Parmenides by Plato: invented the meeting ('You, Socrates, can easily invent Egyptian tales or
anything else,' Phaedrus); thirdly, that no reliance can be placed on the
circumstance as determining the date of Parmenides and Zeno; fourthly, that
the same occasion appears to be referred to by Plato in two other places
(Theaet., Soph.).
Many interpreters have regarded the Parmenides as a 'reductio ad absurdum'
of the Eleatic philosophy. But would Plato have been likely to place this
in the mouth of the great Parmenides himself, who appeared to him, in
Homeric language, to be 'venerable and awful,' and to have a 'glorious
depth of mind'? (Theaet.). It may be admitted that he has ascribed to an
Eleatic stranger in the Sophist opinions which went beyond the doctrines of
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Wyoming by William MacLeod Raine: I peeped through the blind of my room and saw them ride away. He
rode in front of them and sang like an angel--did it out of
daredeviltry to mock the people of the town that hadn't nerve
enough to shoot him. You see, he knew that nobody would dare hurt
him 'count of the revenge of his men."
"What was he like?" the mistress of the Lazy D asked, strangely
awed at this recital of transcendent villainy."
"'Course he was masked, and I didn't see his face. But I'd know
him anywhere. He's a long, slim fellow, built like a mountain
lion. You couldn't look at him and ever forget him. He's one of
these graceful, easy men that go so fur with fool women; one of
|
