| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Don Quixote by Miquel de Cervantes: introduces tenfold, in which he gives an account of the early
Spanish stage, and of his own attempts as a dramatist. It is
needless to say they were put forward by Cervantes in all good faith
and full confidence in their merits. The reader, however, was not to
suppose they were his last word or final effort in the drama, for he
had in hand a comedy called "Engano a los ojos," about which, if he
mistook not, there would be no question.
Of this dramatic masterpiece the world has no opportunity of
judging; his health had been failing for some time, and he died,
apparently of dropsy, on the 23rd of April, 1616, the day on which
England lost Shakespeare, nominally at least, for the English calendar
Don Quixote |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Sportsman by Xenophon: The company being come to some place where a boar is thought to lie,
the first step is to bring up the pack,[11] which done, they will
loose a single Laconian bitch, and keeping the rest in leash, beat
about with this one hound.[12] As soon as she has got on the boar's
track, let them follow in order, one after another, close on the
tracking hound, who gives the lead to the whole company.[13] Even to
the huntsmen themselves many a mark of the creature will be plain,
such as his footprints on soft portions of the ground, and in the
thick undergrowth of forests broken twigs; and, where there are single
trees, the scars made by his tusks.[14] As she follows up the trail
the hound will, as a general rule, finally arrive at some well-wooded
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Divine Comedy (translated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow) by Dante Alighieri: But Beatrice so beautiful and smiling
Appeared to me, that with the other sights
That followed not my memory I must leave her.
Then to uplift themselves mine eyes resumed
The power, and I beheld myself translated
To higher salvation with my Lady only.
Well was I ware that I was more uplifted
By the enkindled smiling of the star,
That seemed to me more ruddy than its wont.
With all my heart, and in that dialect
Which is the same in all, such holocaust
The Divine Comedy (translated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow) |
