| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Gorgias by Plato: old; about our statesmen. When the State treats any of them as
malefactors, I observe that there is a great uproar and indignation at the
supposed wrong which is done to them; 'after all their many services to the
State, that they should unjustly perish,'--so the tale runs. But the cry
is all a lie; for no statesman ever could be unjustly put to death by the
city of which he is the head. The case of the professed statesman is, I
believe, very much like that of the professed sophist; for the sophists,
although they are wise men, are nevertheless guilty of a strange piece of
folly; professing to be teachers of virtue, they will often accuse their
disciples of wronging them, and defrauding them of their pay, and showing
no gratitude for their services. Yet what can be more absurd than that men
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare: Hence foorth I neuer will be Romeo
Iuli. What man art thou, that thus bescreen'd in night
So stumblest on my counsell?
Rom. By a name,
I know not how to tell thee who I am:
My name deare Saint, is hatefull to my selfe,
Because it is an Enemy to thee,
Had I it written, I would teare the word
Iuli. My eares haue yet not drunke a hundred words
Of thy tongues vttering, yet I know the sound.
Art thou not Romeo, and a Montague?
Romeo and Juliet |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Adam Bede by George Eliot: "No, lad," Adam answered, "there's nothing but what I must do
myself. Thee'st got thy new book to read."
And often, when Seth was quite unconscious, Adam, as he paused
after drawing a line with his ruler, looked at his brother with a
kind smile dawning in his eyes. He knew "th' lad liked to sit
full o' thoughts he could give no account of; they'd never come t'
anything, but they made him happy," and in the last year or so,
Adam had been getting more and more indulgent to Seth. It was
part of that growing tenderness which came from the sorrow at work
within him.
For Adam, though you see him quite master of himself, working hard
Adam Bede |
