| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Sarrasine by Honore de Balzac: refrained from enlightening. Sarrasine was Bouchardon's guest for six
years. Fanatically devoted to his art, as Canova was at a later day,
he rose at dawn and went to the studio, there to remain until night,
and lived with his muse alone. If he went to the Comedie-Francaise, he
was dragged thither by his master. He was so bored at Madame
Geoffrin's, and in the fashionable society to which Bouchardon tried
to introduce him, that he preferred to remain alone, and held aloof
from the pleasures of that licentious age. He had no other mistresses
than sculpture and Clotilde, one of the celebrities of the Opera. Even
that intrigue was of brief duration. Sarrasine was decidedly ugly,
always badly dressed, and naturally so independent, so irregular in
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Economist by Xenophon: step on shore. The first ship's company are drenched in sweat; but
listen, they are loud in praise of one another, the captain and his
merry men alike. And the others? They are come at last; they have not
turned a hair, the lazy fellows, but for all that they hate their
officer and by him are hated.
[1] See "Mem." I. i. 7.
[2] Or, "the crew must row the livelong day . . ."
[3] For an instance see "Hell." VI. ii. 27, Iphicrates' periplus.
[4] Or, "one set of boatswains." See Thuc. ii. 84. For the duties of
the Keleustes see "Dict. Gk. Rom. Ant." s.v. portisculus; and for
the type of captain see "Hell." V. i. 3, Teleutias.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Ion by Plato: ION: Clearly, Socrates, the art of the fisherman.
SOCRATES: Come now, suppose that you were to say to me: 'Since you,
Socrates, are able to assign different passages in Homer to their
corresponding arts, I wish that you would tell me what are the passages of
which the excellence ought to be judged by the prophet and prophetic art';
and you will see how readily and truly I shall answer you. For there are
many such passages, particularly in the Odyssee; as, for example, the
passage in which Theoclymenus the prophet of the house of Melampus says to
the suitors:--
'Wretched men! what is happening to you? Your heads and your faces and
your limbs underneath are shrouded in night; and the voice of lamentation
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