| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Lesser Hippias by Plato: about the same matters? And the true man is not a whit better than the
false; for indeed he is the same with him and not the very opposite, as you
were just now imagining.
HIPPIAS: Not in that instance, clearly.
SOCRATES: Shall we examine other instances?
HIPPIAS: Certainly, if you are disposed.
SOCRATES: Are you not also skilled in geometry?
HIPPIAS: I am.
SOCRATES: Well, and does not the same hold in that science also? Is not
the same person best able to speak falsely or to speak truly about
diagrams; and he is--the geometrician?
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Black Tulip by Alexandre Dumas: man. He might one day find Loewestein dull, or the air of
the place unhealthy, or the gin bad, and leave the fortress,
and take his daughter with him, when Cornelius and Rosa
would again be separated.
"Of what use would the carrier pigeons then be?" said
Cornelius to Rosa, "as you, my dear girl, would not be able
to read what I should write to you, nor to write to me your
thoughts in return."
"Well," answered Rosa, who in her heart was as much afraid
of a separation as Cornelius himself, "we have one hour
every evening, let us make good use of it."
The Black Tulip |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from New Arabian Nights by Robert Louis Stevenson: whistled in his lungs, his teeth grated one upon another, and his
joints cracked aloud as he nervously shifted his position.
At last a hand was laid upon the door, and the bolt shot back with
a slight report. There followed another pause, during which
Brackenbury could see the Prince draw himself together noiselessly
as if for some unusual exertion. Then the door opened, letting in
a little more of the light of the morning; and the figure of a man
appeared upon the threshold and stood motionless. He was tall, and
carried a knife in his hand. Even in the twilight they could see
his upper teeth bare and glistening, for his mouth was open like
that of a hound about to leap. The man had evidently been over the
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