| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Twilight Land by Howard Pyle: shone like coals of fire.
"I have come," said Zadok, "and first let me cure thy smarts, O
master."
He removed the cloths from the young man's back, and rubbed the
places that smarted with a cooling unguent. Instantly the pain
and smarting ceased, and the merchant's son had perfect ease.
"Now," said Zadok, "what is thy bidding?"
"Tell me," said Aben Hassen the Fool, "whence comes all the
wealth that you have brought me? The king has commanded me to
tell him and I could not, and so he has had me beaten with fifty
lashes."
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Statesman by Plato: earlier dialogues, the rival of the statesman, but assumes his form. Plato
sees that the ideal of the state in his own day is more and more severed
from the actual. From such ideals as he had once formed, he turns away to
contemplate the decline of the Greek cities which were far worse now in his
old age than they had been in his youth, and were to become worse and worse
in the ages which followed. He cannot contain his disgust at the
contemporary statesmen, sophists who had turned politicians, in various
forms of men and animals, appearing, some like lions and centaurs, others
like satyrs and monkeys. In this new disguise the Sophists make their last
appearance on the scene: in the Laws Plato appears to have forgotten them,
or at any rate makes only a slight allusion to them in a single passage
Statesman |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Common Sense by Thomas Paine: fifty or sixty of those ships, with a few guardships on constant duty,
would keep up a sufficient navy, and that without burdening ourselves
with the evil so loudly complained of in England, of suffering their fleet,
in time of peace to lie rotting in the docks. To unite the sinews
of commerce and defense is sound policy; for when our strength
and our riches play into each other's hand, we need fear no external enemy.
In almost every article of defense we abound. Hemp flourishes even
to rankness, so that we need not want cordage. Our iron is superior
to that of other countries. Our small arms equal to any in the world.
Cannon we can cast at pleasure. Saltpetre and gunpowder we are every
day producing. Our knowledge is hourly improving. Resolution is our
Common Sense |
