| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Symposium by Xenophon: Crit. But consider, a snubness of the nose, how is that more beautiful
than straightness?[7]
[7] Or, "your straight nose." Cf. Plat. "Theaet." 209 C: Soc. "Or, if
I had further known you not only as having nose and eyes, but as
having a snub nose and prominent eyes, should I have any more
notion of you than myself and others who resemble me?" Cf. also
Aristot. "Pol." v. 9, 7: "A nose which varies from the ideal of
straightness to a hook or snub may still be a good shape and
agreeable to the eye; but if the excess be very great, all
symmetry is lost, and the nose at last ceases to be a nose at all
on account of some excess in one direction or defect in the other;
The Symposium |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Commission in Lunacy by Honore de Balzac: 1816. If, as you did me the honor of informing me, furniture is costly
for the Jeanrenauds, it must be yet more so for you, who are a great
lady. Though I am a judge, I am but a man; I may be wrong--tell me so.
Remember the duties imposed on me by the law, and the rigorous
inquiries it demands, when the case before it is the suspension from
all his functions of the father of a family in the prime of life. So
you will pardon me, Madame la Marquise, for laying all these
difficulties before you; it will be easy for you to give me an
explanation.
"When a man is pronounced incapable of the control of his own affairs,
a trustee has to be appointed. Who will be the trustee?"
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Little Britain by Washington Irving: confusion. Thus in latter days has the tranquillity of Little
Britain been grievously disturbed, and its golden simplicity of
manners threatened with total subversion by the aspiring family
of a retired butcher.
The family of the Lambs had long been among the most
thriving and popular in the neighborhood; the Miss Lambs
were the belles of Little Britain, and everybody was pleased
when Old Lamb had made money enough to shut up shop, and
put his name on a brass plate on his door. In an evil hour,
however, one of the Miss Lambs had the honor of being a lady
in attendance on the Lady Mayoress, at her grand annual ball,
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