| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Life of the Spider by J. Henri Fabre: insects, must act more freely than in a lifeless body, with its
stagnant fluids. The game which the Spider means to suck dry might
very well not be dead. This is easily ascertained.
I place some Locusts of different species on the webs in my
menagerie, one on this, another on that. The Spider comes rushing
up, binds the prey, nibbles at it gently and withdraws, waiting for
the bite to take effect. I then take the insect and carefully
strip it of its silken shroud. The Locust is not dead, far from
it; one would even think that he had suffered no harm. I examine
the released prisoner through the lens in vain; I can see no trace
of a wound.
The Life of the Spider |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Two Noble Kinsmen by William Shakespeare: Heare nothing but the Clocke that tels our woes.
The Vine shall grow, but we shall never see it:
Sommer shall come, and with her all delights;
But dead-cold winter must inhabite here still.
PALAMON.
Tis too true, Arcite. To our Theban houndes,
That shooke the aged Forrest with their ecchoes,
No more now must we halloa, no more shake
Our pointed Iavelyns, whilst the angry Swine
Flyes like a parthian quiver from our rages,
Strucke with our well-steeld Darts: All valiant uses
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Golden Sayings of Epictetus by Epictetus: of the will, as office and power and the receptions of the great.
Or what reason hast thou (tell me) for desiring to read? For
if thou aim at nothing beyond the mere delight of it, or gaining
some scrap of knowledge, thou art but a poor, spiritless knave.
But if thou desirest to study to its proper end, what else is
this than a life that flows on tranquil and serene? And if thy
reading secures thee not serenity, what profits it?--"Nay, but it
doth secure it," quoth he, "and that is why I repine at being
deprived of it."--And what serenity is this that lies at the
mercy of every passer-by? I say not at the mercy of the Emperor
or Emperor's favorite, but such as trembles at a raven's croak
The Golden Sayings of Epictetus |
