| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Tanglewood Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne: mariners started back, expecting no better fate than to be torn
to pieces and devoured. To their surprise and joy, however,
these wild beasts merely capered around them, wagging their
tails, offering their heads to be stroked and patted, and
behaving just like so many well-bred house dogs, when they wish
to express their delight at meeting their master, or their
master's friends. The biggest lion licked the feet of
Eurylochus; and every other lion, and every wolf and tiger,
singled out one of his two and twenty followers, whom the beast
fondled as if he loved him better than a beef bone.
But, for all that, Eurylochus imagined that he saw something
Tanglewood Tales |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Charmides by Plato: philosophy of Plato (Greek) still retains an intellectual element (as
Socrates is also said to have identified (Greek) with (Greek): Xen. Mem.)
and is not yet relegated to the sphere of moral virtue, as in the
Nicomachean Ethics of Aristotle.
The beautiful youth, Charmides, who is also the most temperate of human
beings, is asked by Socrates, 'What is Temperance?' He answers
characteristically, (1) 'Quietness.' 'But Temperance is a fine and noble
thing; and quietness in many or most cases is not so fine a thing as
quickness.' He tries again and says (2) that temperance is modesty. But
this again is set aside by a sophistical application of Homer: for
temperance is good as well as noble, and Homer has declared that 'modesty
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Black Arrow by Robert Louis Stevenson: beggared him to his door; I burned the thatch above his head; I
drove him from this country; and now, cometh he back to beard me?
Nay, but, Duckworth, this time it shall go bitter hard!"
He was silent for some time, his face working.
"Eat!" he cried, suddenly. "And you here," he added to Matcham,
"swear me an oath to follow straight to the Moat House."
"I will pledge mine honour," replied Matcham.
"What make I with your honour?" cried the knight. "Swear me upon
your mother's welfare!"
Matcham gave the required oath; and Sir Daniel re-adjusted the hood
over his face, and prepared his bell and staff. To see him once
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