| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from To-morrow by Joseph Conrad: his wife had inherited a house and enough to live on
(from a bachelor uncle who had made some money
in the coal business) he threw up his command of
an East-coast collier with a feeling as though he
had escaped from the galleys. After all these years
he might have counted on the fingers of his two
hands all the days he had been out of sight of Eng-
land. He had never known what it was to be out
of soundings. "I have never been further than
eighty fathoms from the land," was one of his
boasts.
To-morrow |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Ten Years Later by Alexandre Dumas: "More than others -- let him."
"He is ambitious."
"Who is not, marquise?"
"'Yes, but with him ambition has no bounds."
"I am quite aware of that, since he made it a point to
succeed me with Madame Vanel."
"And obtained his end; look at that."
"Do you mean to say he has the presumption to hope to pass
from intendant to superintendent?"
"Have you not yourself already had the same fear?"
"Oh! oh!" said Fouquet, "to succeed with Madame Vanel is one
Ten Years Later |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Eryxias by Platonic Imitator: weak. There is no power over language, or beauty of style; and there is a
certain abruptness and agroikia in the conversation, which is very un-
Platonic. The best passage is probably that about the poets:--the remark
that the poet, who is of a reserved disposition, is uncommonly difficult to
understand, and the ridiculous interpretation of Homer, are entirely in the
spirit of Plato (compare Protag; Ion; Apol.). The characters are ill-
drawn. Socrates assumes the 'superior person' and preaches too much, while
Alcibiades is stupid and heavy-in-hand. There are traces of Stoic
influence in the general tone and phraseology of the Dialogue (compare opos
melesei tis...kaka: oti pas aphron mainetai): and the writer seems to
have been acquainted with the 'Laws' of Plato (compare Laws). An incident
|
