| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Turn of the Screw by Henry James: as to be positively on her guard against showing it too much.
I wondered even then a little why she should wish not to show it,
and that, with reflection, with suspicion, might of course
have made me uneasy.
But it was a comfort that there could be no uneasiness in a
connection with anything so beatific as the radiant image of my
little girl, the vision of whose angelic beauty had probably
more than anything else to do with the restlessness that,
before morning, made me several times rise and wander
about my room to take in the whole picture and prospect;
to watch, from my open window, the faint summer dawn,
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Crito by Plato: yours to overturn us--the laws, and the whole state, as far as in you lies?
Do you imagine that a state can subsist and not be overthrown, in which the
decisions of law have no power, but are set aside and trampled upon by
individuals?' What will be our answer, Crito, to these and the like words?
Any one, and especially a rhetorician, will have a good deal to say on
behalf of the law which requires a sentence to be carried out. He will
argue that this law should not be set aside; and shall we reply, 'Yes; but
the state has injured us and given an unjust sentence.' Suppose I say
that?
CRITO: Very good, Socrates.
SOCRATES: 'And was that our agreement with you?' the law would answer; 'or
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Madam How and Lady Why by Charles Kingsley: must puzzle you still till we have another talk; or rather it
seems to me that the best way to explain that puzzle to you would
be for you and me to go a journey into the far west, and look into
the matter for ourselves; and from here to the far west we will
go, either in fancy or on a real railroad and steamboat, before we
have another talk about these things.
Now it is time to stop. Is there anything more you want to know?
for you look as if something was puzzling you still.
Were there any men in the world while all this was going on?
I think not. We have no proof that there were not: but also we
have no proof that there were; the cave-men, of whom I told you,
|
