| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Aspern Papers by Henry James: "Oh, dear Aunt, what do you want to do with me?" cried the "girl"
with a piteous quaver. "I know all about the place!"
"Well then, go with him as a cicerone!" said Miss Bordereau
with an effort of something like cruelty in her implacable
power of retort--an incongruous suggestion that she was
a sarcastic, profane, cynical old woman. "Haven't we heard
that there have been all sorts of changes in all these years?
You ought to see them and at your age (I don't mean because
you're so young) you ought to take the chances that come.
You're old enough, my dear, and this gentleman won't hurt you.
He will show you the famous sunsets, if they still go
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Eryxias by Platonic Imitator: of the world. As they approached, he said, Hail, Socrates!
SOCRATES: The same to you, I said; have you any good news from Sicily to
tell us?
ERASISTRATUS: Most excellent. But, if you please, let us first sit down;
for I am tired with my yesterday's journey from Megara.
SOCRATES: Gladly, if that is your desire.
ERASISTRATUS: What would you wish to hear first? he said. What the
Sicilians are doing, or how they are disposed towards our city? To my
mind, they are very like wasps: so long as you only cause them a little
annoyance they are quite unmanageable; you must destroy their nests if you
wish to get the better of them. And in a similar way, the Syracusans,
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Ballads by Robert Louis Stevenson: on the danger of the enterprise. The broad distinction here
drawn between Nateva and Namunu-ura is therefore not
impossibly anachronistic.
Note 11, "HIOPA THE KING." Hiopa was really the name of the
king (chief) of Vaiau; but I could never learn that of the
king of Paea - pronounce to rhyme with the Indian AYAH - and
I gave the name where it was most needed. This note must
appear otiose indeed to readers who have never heard of
either of these two gentlemen; and perhaps there is only one
person in the world capable at once of reading my verses and
spying the inaccuracy. For him, for Mr. Tati Salmon,
Ballads |
