| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Republic by Plato: particular moments and by fits and starts, but continuously, in making
preparation for the whole of life. Other Greek writers saw the mischievous
tendency of Spartan discipline (Arist. Pol; Thuc.). But only Plato
recognized the fundamental error on which the practice was based.
The subject of gymnastic leads Plato to the sister subject of medicine,
which he further illustrates by the parallel of law. The modern disbelief
in medicine has led in this, as in some other departments of knowledge, to
a demand for greater simplicity; physicians are becoming aware that they
often make diseases 'greater and more complicated' by their treatment of
them (Rep.). In two thousand years their art has made but slender
progress; what they have gained in the analysis of the parts is in a great
The Republic |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Gobseck by Honore de Balzac: " 'Have you shown me any pity?' he asked. 'I allowed you to squander
your own money, and now do you mean to squander my fortune, too, and
ruin my son?'
" 'Ah! well, yes, have no pity for me, be merciless to me!' she cried.
'But the children? Condemn your widow to live in a convent; I will
obey you; I will do anything, anything that you bid me, to expiate the
wrong I have done you, if that so the children may be happy! The
children! Oh, the children!'
" 'I have only one child,' said the Count, stretching out a wasted
arm, in his despair, towards his son.
" 'Pardon a penitent woman, a penitent woman! . . .' wailed the
Gobseck |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Oakdale Affair by Edgar Rice Burroughs: Mrs. Prim gasped and sank upon a sofa. The girl stood
motionless, her eyes once again bent upon the floor.
"What's the matter?" asked Burton. "What's wrong?"
"Everything is wrong, Mr. Burton," Jonas Prim's voice
was crisp and cold. "This is not my daughter."
Burton looked his surprise and discomfiture. He turned
upon the girl.
"What do you mean--" he started; but she interrupted
him.
"You are going to ask what I mean by posing as Miss
Prim," she said. "I have never said that I was Miss Prim.
The Oakdale Affair |
