| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Symposium by Xenophon: wishing to improve my health by exercise? or to enjoy my victuals
better? to sleep better? or is it the sort of exercise I set my heart
on? Not like those runners of the long race,[32] to have my legs grow
muscular and my shoulders leaner in proportion; nor like a boxer,
thickening chest and shoulders at expense of legs; but by distribution
of the toil throughout my limbs[33] I seek to give an even balance to
my body. Or are you laughing to think that I shall not in future have
to seek a partner in the training school,[34] whereby it will not be
necessary for an old man like myself to strip in public?[35] All I
shall need will be a seven-sofa'd chamber,[36] where I can warm to
work,[37] just like the lad here who has found this room quite ample
The Symposium |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Mosses From An Old Manse by Nathaniel Hawthorne: wornout, forgotten, and good-for-nothing trash as he was! Yet
they live in fair repute, and never see themselves for what they
are. And why should my poor puppet be the only one to know
himself and perish for it?"
While thus muttering, the witch had filled a fresh pipe of
tobacco, and held the stem between her fingers, as doubtful
whether to thrust it into her own mouth or Feathertop's.
"Poor Feathertop!" she continued. "I could easily give him
another chance and send him forth again tomorrow. But no; his
feelings are too tender, his sensibilities too deep. He seems to
have too much heart to bustle for his own advantage in such an
Mosses From An Old Manse |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Camille by Alexandre Dumas: resolved to have something which had belonged to her, and I
hastened to the auctioneer and asked him to allow me to see the
list of the things sold and of the buyers' names. I saw that this
volume had been bought by you, and I decided to ask you to give
it up to me, though the price you had set upon it made me fear
that you might yourself have some souvenir in connection with the
possession of the book."
As he spoke, it was evident that he was afraid I had known
Marguerite as he had known her. I hastened to reassure him.
"I knew Mlle. Gautier only by sight," I said; "her death made on
me the impression that the death of a pretty woman must always
Camille |
