| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe: about the island, they would certainly discover that there were
inhabitants in it; and so they should be undone that way. Upon
this, they went back again, and there lay the fellows fast asleep
still, and so they resolved to awaken them, and take them
prisoners; and they did so. The poor fellows were strangely
frightened when they were seized upon and bound; and afraid, like
the women, that they should be murdered and eaten: for it seems
those people think all the world does as they do, in eating men's
flesh; but they were soon made easy as to that, and away they
carried them.
It was very happy for them that they did not carry them home to the
Robinson Crusoe |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Dead Souls by Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol: the second to the prosperity of his peasants and their safe
transferment; and the third to the beauty of his future wife--a
compliment which brought to our hero's lips a flickering smile.
Lastly, he received from the company a pressing, as well as an
unanimous, invitation to extend his stay in town for at least another
fortnight, and, in the meanwhile, to allow a wife to be found for him.
"Quite so," agreed the President. "Fight us tooth and nail though you
may, we intend to have you married. You have happened upon us by
chance, and you shall have no reason to repent of it. We are in
earnest on this subject."
"But why should I fight you tooth and nail?" said Chichikov, smiling.
Dead Souls |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Meno by Plato: shall be truly delighted to find that I have been mistaken, and that you
and Gorgias do really have this knowledge; although I have been just saying
that I have never found anybody who had.
MENO: There will be no difficulty, Socrates, in answering your question.
Let us take first the virtue of a man--he should know how to administer the
state, and in the administration of it to benefit his friends and harm his
enemies; and he must also be careful not to suffer harm himself. A woman's
virtue, if you wish to know about that, may also be easily described: her
duty is to order her house, and keep what is indoors, and obey her husband.
Every age, every condition of life, young or old, male or female, bond or
free, has a different virtue: there are virtues numberless, and no lack of
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