| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Cratylus by Plato: the faded recollection of their own past history; the use of a word in a
striking and familiar passage gives a complexion to its use everywhere
else, and the new use of an old and familiar phrase has also a peculiar
power over us. But these and other subtleties of language escaped the
observation of Plato. He is not aware that the languages of the world are
organic structures, and that every word in them is related to every other;
nor does he conceive of language as the joint work of the speaker and the
hearer, requiring in man a faculty not only of expressing his thoughts but
of understanding those of others.
On the other hand, he cannot be justly charged with a desire to frame
language on artificial principles. Philosophers have sometimes dreamed of
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Macbeth by William Shakespeare: Macd. See who comes heere
Malc. My Countryman: but yet I know him not
Macd. My euer gentle Cozen, welcome hither
Malc. I know him now. Good God betimes remoue
The meanes that makes vs Strangers
Rosse. Sir, Amen
Macd. Stands Scotland where it did?
Rosse. Alas poore Countrey,
Almost affraid to know it selfe. It cannot
Be call'd our Mother, but our Graue; where nothing
But who knowes nothing, is once seene to smile:
Macbeth |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Pupil by Henry James: such rascally crews!" Then in a different tone he added: "Happy
opulent youth!"
"Not if he's a dismal dunce."
"Oh they're happier then. But you can't have everything, can you?"
the boy smiled.
Pemberton held him fast, hands on his shoulders - he had never
loved him so. "What will become of you, what will you do?" He
thought of Mrs. Moreen, desperate for sixty francs.
"I shall become an homme fait." And then as if he recognised all
the bearings of Pemberton's allusion: "I shall get on with them
better when you're not here."
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