| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Figure in the Carpet by Henry James: time!' He shall crown me victor - with the critical laurel."
Meanwhile he really avoided the chances London life might have
given him of meeting the distinguished novelist; a danger, however,
that disappeared with Vereker's leaving England for an indefinite
absence, as the newspapers announced - going to the south for
motives connected with the health of his wife, which had long kept
her in retirement. A year - more than a year - had elapsed since
the incident at Bridges, but I had had no further sight of him. I
think I was at bottom rather ashamed - I hated to remind him that,
though I had irremediably missed his point, a reputation for
acuteness was rapidly overtaking me. This scruple led me a dance;
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Crito by Plato: be unfair. You had your choice, and might have gone either to Lacedaemon
or Crete, both which states are often praised by you for their good
government, or to some other Hellenic or foreign state. Whereas you, above
all other Athenians, seemed to be so fond of the state, or, in other words,
of us her laws (and who would care about a state which has no laws?), that
you never stirred out of her; the halt, the blind, the maimed, were not
more stationary in her than you were. And now you run away and forsake
your agreements. Not so, Socrates, if you will take our advice; do not
make yourself ridiculous by escaping out of the city.
'For just consider, if you transgress and err in this sort of way, what
good will you do either to yourself or to your friends? That your friends
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Lesson of the Master by Henry James: fact, strange as it may appear. It has only just become one.
Isn't it ridiculous?" St. George made this speech without
confusion, but on the other hand, so far as our friend could judge,
without latent impudence. It struck his interlocutor that, to talk
so comfortably and coolly, he must simply have forgotten what had
passed between them. His next words, however, showed he hadn't,
and they produced, as an appeal to Paul's own memory, an effect
which would have been ludicrous if it hadn't been cruel. "Do you
recall the talk we had at my house that night, into which Miss
Fancourt's name entered? I've often thought of it since."
"Yes; no wonder you said what you did" - Paul was careful to meet
|
