| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Apology by Xenophon: blot not upon me but upon those who condemned me.
[46] Cf. "Mem." I. ii. 62.
[47] See Plat. "Rep." iii. 413 A.
"For me, I find a certain consolation in the case of Palamedes,[48]
whose end was not unlike my own; who still even to-day furnishes a far
nobler theme of song than Odysseus who unjustly slew him; and I know
that testimony will be borne to me also by time future and time past
that I never wronged another at any time or ever made a worse man of
him,[49] but ever tried to benefit those who practised discussion with
me, teaching them gratuitously every good thing in my power."
[48] Cf. "Mem." IV. viii. 9, 10; ib. IV. ii. 3. See Plat. "Rep." v.
The Apology |
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: that so mysteriously burned on top of it, or in the
pungently-aromatic smoke which exhaled from the kindled weed. The
figure, after a few doubtful attempts at length blew forth a
volley of smoke extending all the way from the obscure corner
into the bar of sunshine. There it eddied and melted away among
the motes of dust. It seemed a convulsive effort; for the two or
three next whiffs were fainter, although the coal still glowed
and threw a gleam over the scarecrow's visage. The old witch
clapped her skinny hands together, and smiled encouragingly upon
her handiwork. She saw that the charm worked well. The
shrivelled, yellow face, which heretofore had been no face at
Mosses From An Old Manse |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Mistress Wilding by Rafael Sabatini: to kiss the hand of the Protestant Duke. They rode hard, as Wilding had
said they must, and they reached the junction of the roads before their
pursuers hove in sight. Here Wilding suddenly detained them again. The
road ahead of them ran straight for almost a mile, so that if they took
it now they were almost sure to be seen presently by the messengers. On
their right a thickly grown coppice stretched from the road to the
stream that babbled in the hollow. He gave it as his advice that they
should lie hidden there until those who hunted them should have gone
by. Obviously that was the only plan, and his companions instantly
adopted it. They found a way through a gate into an adjacent field,
and from this they gained the shelter of the trees. Trenchard,
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