| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne: He will be very awkward in them at first, replied my mother.
--And 'twill be lucky, if that's the worst on't, added my father.
It will be very lucky, answered my mother.
I suppose, replied my father,--making some pause first,--he'll be exactly
like other people's children.--
Exactly, said my mother.--
--Though I shall be sorry for that, added my father: and so the debate
stopp'd again.--
--They should be of leather, said my father, turning him about again.--
They will last him, said my mother, the longest.
But he can have no linings to 'em, replied my father.--
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Sophist by Plato: said about the Sophist at first, that he was of a class not easily caught,
for he seems to have abundance of defences, which he throws up, and which
must every one of them be stormed before we can reach the man himself. And
even now, we have with difficulty got through his first defence, which is
the not-being of not-being, and lo! here is another; for we have still to
show that falsehood exists in the sphere of language and opinion, and there
will be another and another line of defence without end.
STRANGER: Any one, Theaetetus, who is able to advance even a little ought
to be of good cheer, for what would he who is dispirited at a little
progress do, if he were making none at all, or even undergoing a repulse?
Such a faint heart, as the proverb says, will never take a city: but now
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Heart of the West by O. Henry: language. Old Cal was so obscure in his chosen profession that he
wasn't even hated by the cowmen. And when a sheepman don't get eminent
enough to acquire the hostility of the cattlemen, he is mighty apt to
die unwept and considerably unsung.
"But that Marilla girl was a benefit to the eye. And she was the most
elegant kind of a housekeeper. I was the nearest neighbour, and I used
to ride over to the Double-Elm anywhere from nine to sixteen times a
week with fresh butter or a quarter of venison or a sample of new
sheep-dip just as a frivolous excuse to see Marilla. Marilla and me
got to be extensively inveigled with each other, and I was pretty sure
I was going to get my rope around her neck and lead her over to the
Heart of the West |
