| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Sportsman by Xenophon: handful[6] of such men, by virtue of their bodily health[7] and
courage, caught the victorious enemy roaming blindly in some intricacy
of ground, renewed the fight, and routed him. Since so it must ever
be; to those whose souls and bodies are in happy case success is near
at hand.[8]
[5] Or, "allies."
[6] Or, "a forlorn hope."
[7] {euexia}, al. {eutaxia}, "by good discipline."
[8] "Fortune favours the brave," reading {to eutukhesai} (L. D.); or
if {tou eutukhesai}, (vulg.) "those whose health of soul and body
is established are ipso facto nigh unto good fortune."
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Common Sense by Thomas Paine: Do they put themselves in the place of the sufferer whose ALL
is ALREADY gone, and of the soldier, who hath quitted ALL for the defence
of his country. If their ill judged moderation be suited to their own
private situations only, regardless of others, the event will convince them,
that "they are reckoning without their Host."
Put us, says some, on the footing we were on in sixty-three:
To which I answer, the request is not now in the power of Britain
to comply with, neither will she propose it; but if it were,
and even should be granted, I ask, as a reasonable question,
By what means is such a corrupt and faithless court to be kept
to its engagements? Another parliament, nay, even the present,
Common Sense |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Devil's Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce: and wreak its divine thirst upon the immortal parts of the rarest and
richest wines ever quaffed here below. Such is my religious faith,
though I grieve to confess that neither His Holiness the Pope nor His
Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury (whom I equally and profoundly
revere) will assent to its dissemination."
SPOOKER, n. A writer whose imagination concerns itself with
supernatural phenomena, especially in the doings of spooks. One of
the most illustrious spookers of our time is Mr. William D. Howells,
who introduces a well-credentialed reader to as respectable and
mannerly a company of spooks as one could wish to meet. To the terror
that invests the chairman of a district school board, the Howells
The Devil's Dictionary |
