| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Statesman by Plato: acceptable to them, and to ask on our behalf blessings in return from them.
Now both these are branches of the servile or ministerial art.
YOUNG SOCRATES: Yes, clearly.
STRANGER: And here I think that we seem to be getting on the right track;
for the priest and the diviner are swollen with pride and prerogative, and
they create an awful impression of themselves by the magnitude of their
enterprises; in Egypt, the king himself is not allowed to reign, unless he
have priestly powers, and if he should be of another class and has thrust
himself in, he must get enrolled in the priesthood. In many parts of
Hellas, the duty of offering the most solemn propitiatory sacrifices is
assigned to the highest magistracies, and here, at Athens, the most solemn
Statesman |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Men of Iron by Howard Pyle: "Why, how dost thou talk, Francis!" said Myles, turning upon him
indignantly. "Thou knowest that thou likest to see the boy beaten
no more than I." Then, after a meditative pause, "How many, think
ye, we muster of our company of the Rose today?"
Wilkes looked doubtfully at Gascoyne. "There be only seventeen of
us here now," said he at last. "Brinton and Lambourne are away to
Roby Castle in Lord George's train, and will not be back till
Saturday next. And Watt Newton is in the infirmary.
"Seventeen be'st enou," said Myles, grimly. "Let us get together
this afternoon, such as may, in the Brutus Tower, for I, as I did
say, will no longer suffer these vile bachelors."
Men of Iron |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Hated Son by Honore de Balzac: every one away from him except the priest.
The next morning the duke, leaning on the arm of his old retainer
Bertrand, walked along the shore and among the rocks looking for the
son he had so long hated. He saw him from afar in a recess of the
granite rocks, lying carelessly extended in the sun, his head on a
tuft of mossy grass, his feet gracefully drawn up beneath him. So
lying, Etienne was like a swallow at rest. As soon as the tall old man
appeared upon the beach, the sound of his steps mingling faintly with
the voice of the waves, the young man turned his head, gave the cry of
a startled bird, and disappeared as if into the rock itself, like a
mouse darting so quickly into its hole that we doubt if we have even
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