| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from On Horsemanship by Xenophon: {xephos}. "Cyrop." I. ii. 13.
Again, in place of the long reed spear, which is apt to be weak and
awkward to carry, we would substitute two darts of cornel-wood;[10]
the one of which the skilful horseman can let fly, and still ply the
one reserved in all directions, forwards, backwards,[11] and
obliquely; add to that, these smaller weapons are not only stronger
than the spear but far more manageable.
[10] For these reforms, the result of the author's Asiatic experiences
perhaps, cf. "Hell." III. iv. 14; "Anab." I. viii. 3; "Cyrop." I.
ii. 9.
[11] Reading {eis toupisthen} after Leoncl.
On Horsemanship |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from A Journal of the Plague Year by Daniel Defoe: Going one day through Aldgate, and a pretty many people being
passing and repassing, there comes a man out of the end of the
Minories, and looking a little up the street and down, he throws his
hands abroad, 'Lord, what an alteration is here I Why, last week I
came along here, and hardly anybody was to he seen.' Another man - I
heard him - adds to his words, "Tis all wonderful; 'tis all a dream.'
'Blessed be God,' says a third man, d and let us give thanks to Him, for
'tis all His own doing, human help and human skill was at an end.'
These were all strangers to one another. But such salutations as these
were frequent in the street every day; and in spite of a loose
behaviour, the very common people went along the streets giving God
A Journal of the Plague Year |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Tanglewood Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne: an abundant harvest of what looked like human beings, armed
with helmets and breastplates, shields, swords, and spears; and
before they were well out of the earth, they brandished their
weapons, and clashed them one against another, seeming to
think, little while as they had yet lived, that they had wasted
too much of life without a battle. Every tooth of the dragon
had produced one of these sons of deadly mischief.
Up sprouted also a great many trumpeters; and with the first
breath that they drew, they put their brazen trumpets to their
lips, and sounded a tremendous and ear-shattering blast, so
that the whole space, just now so quiet and solitary,
Tanglewood Tales |
