| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Virginian by Owen Wister: work and his comrades and set to playing nurse for me. And for a
while this humiliation ate into his untamed soul. It was his
lugubrious lot to accompany me in my rambles, preside over my
blunders, and save me from calamitously passing into the next
world. He bore it in courteous silence, except when sneaking was
necessary. He would show me the lower ford, which I could never
find for myself, generally mistaking a quicksand for it. He would
tie my horse properly. He would recommend me not to shoot my
rifle at a white-tailed deer in the particular moment that the
outfit wagon was passing behind the animal on the further side of
the brush. There was seldom a day that he was not obliged to
The Virginian |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Ion by Plato: quick perception of that strain only which is appropriated to the God by
whom they are possessed, and have plenty of dances and words for that, but
take no heed of any other. And you, Ion, when the name of Homer is
mentioned have plenty to say, and have nothing to say of others. You ask,
'Why is this?' The answer is that you praise Homer not by art but by
divine inspiration.
ION: That is good, Socrates; and yet I doubt whether you will ever have
eloquence enough to persuade me that I praise Homer only when I am mad and
possessed; and if you could hear me speak of him I am sure you would never
think this to be the case.
SOCRATES: I should like very much to hear you, but not until you have
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Frankenstein by Mary Shelley: upon the past with self-satisfaction, and from thence to gather promise
of new hopes, I was seized by remorse and the sense of guilt,
which hurried me away to a hell of intense tortures such as
no language can describe.
This state of mind preyed upon my health, which had perhaps
never entirely recovered from the first shock it had sustained.
I shunned the face of man; all sound of joy or complacency was
torture to me; solitude was my only consolation--deep, dark,
deathlike solitude.
My father observed with pain the alteration perceptible in my
disposition and habits and endeavoured by arguments deduced from
Frankenstein |
