| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Tarzan the Untamed by Edgar Rice Burroughs: to seize them, while from the opposite direction the roars of
the pursuing lions sounded close upon them, mingling with the
screams of numerous parrots which now circled about their
heads. Tarzan halted and turned to the young aviator. "How
many rounds of ammunition have you left?" he asked.
"I have seven in the pistol," replied Smith-Oldwick, "and
perhaps a dozen more cartridges in my blouse pocket."
"I'm going to rush them," said Tarzan. "Otobu, you stay at
the side of the woman. Oldwick, you and I will go ahead, you
upon my left. I think we need not try to tell Numa what to
do," for even then the great lion was baring his fangs and
Tarzan the Untamed |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Perfect Wagnerite: A Commentary on the Niblung's Ring by George Bernard Shaw: Mother, and bids her see to it that Hunding shall fall in the
approaching combat. But he is reckoning without his consort,
Fricka. What will she, the Law, say to the lawless pair who have
heaped incest on adultery? A hero may have defied the law, and
put his own will in its place; but can a god hold him guiltless,
when the whole power of the gods can enforce itself only by law?
Fricka, shuddering with horror, outraged in every instinct, comes
clamoring for punishment. Wotan pleads the general necessity of
encouraging heroism in order to keep up the Valhalla bodyguard;
but his remonstrances only bring upon him torrents of reproaches
for his own unfaithfulness to the law in roaming through the
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Republic by Plato: Plato are at least as paradoxical to us as they were to his contemporaries.
The modern world has either sneered at them as absurd, or denounced them as
unnatural and immoral; men have been pleased to find in Aristotle's
criticisms of them the anticipation of their own good sense. The wealthy
and cultivated classes have disliked and also dreaded them; they have
pointed with satisfaction to the failure of efforts to realize them in
practice. Yet since they are the thoughts of one of the greatest of human
intelligences, and of one who had done most to elevate morality and
religion, they seem to deserve a better treatment at our hands. We may
have to address the public, as Plato does poetry, and assure them that we
mean no harm to existing institutions. There are serious errors which have
The Republic |
