| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Last War: A World Set Free by H. G. Wells: to an endless chain of evils. But his task would have been a
harder one than the council's. The moral shock of the atomic
bombs had been a profound one, and for a while the cunning side
of the human animal was overpowered by its sincere realisation of
the vital necessity for reconstruction. The litigious and trading
spirits cowered together, scared at their own consequences; men
thought twice before they sought mean advantages in the face of
the unusual eagerness to realise new aspirations, and when at
last the weeds revived again and 'claims' began to sprout, they
sprouted upon the stony soil of law-courts reformed, of laws that
pointed to the future instead of the past, and under the blazing
The Last War: A World Set Free |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Salammbo by Gustave Flaubert: child terrified by a phantom. "Speak to me! I am sick! I want to get
well! I have tried everything! But you, you perhaps know some stronger
gods, or some resistless invocation?"
"For what purpose?" asked Spendius.
Striking his head with both his fists, he replied:
"To rid me of her!"
Then speaking to himself with long pauses he said:
"I am no doubt the victim of some holocaust which she has promised to
the gods?--She holds me fast by a chain which people cannot see. If I
walk, it is she that is advancing; when I stop, she is resting! Her
eyes burn me, I hear her voice. She encompasses me, she penetrates me.
Salammbo |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Agesilaus by Xenophon: Maeander.
This time, however, Agesilaus was true to his word. In accordance with
his published order he advanced straight upon the region of Sardis,
and, during a three days' march through a country where not an enemy
was to be seen, provided his army with abundant supplies. On the
fourth day the enemy's cavalry came up. The Persian general ordered
the commandant of his baggage train to cross the Pactolus and encamp,
whilst his troopers, who had caught sight of the camp followers of the
Hellenes scattered in search of booty, put many of them to the sword.
Agesilaus, aware how matters were going, ordered his cavalry to the
rescue, and the Persians on their side, seeing the enemy's supports
|
