| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Apology by Xenophon: bringing-up and his own want of human feeling.
Socrates did, it is true, by his self-laudation draw down upon him the
jealousy of the court and caused his judges all the more to record
their votes against him. Yet even so I look upon the lot of destiny
which he obtained as providential,[58] chancing as he did upon the
easiest amidst the many shapes of death,[59] and escaping as he did
the one grievous portion of existence. And what a glorious chance,
moreover, he had to display the full strength of his soul, for when
once he had decided that death was better for him than life, just as
in the old days he had never harshly opposed himself to the good
things of life morosely,[60] so even in face of death he showed no
The Apology |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Reminiscences of Tolstoy by Leo Tolstoy: phrase "my friend" was an expression of tenderness beyond which
imagination could not go. The words astonished my father even on
the lips of his dying brother.
During all his lifetime I never received any mark of
tenderness from him whatever.
He was not fond of kissing children, and when he did so in
saying good morning or good night, he did it merely as a duty.
It is therefore easy to understand that he did not provoke any
display of tenderness toward himself, and that nearness and
dearness with him were never accompanied by any outward
manifestations.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy: be as fiat as toads, and like suet pudden inside. I've been
a wife, and I've been a mother, and I never see such
unprincipled bread in Casterbridge as this before.--But you
must be a real stranger here not to know what's made all the
poor volks' insides plim like blowed bladders this week?"
"I am," said Elizabeth's mother shyly.
Not wishing to be observed further till she knew more of her
future in this place, she withdrew with her daughter from
the speaker's side. Getting a couple of biscuits at the
shop indicated as a temporary substitute for a meal, they
next bent their steps instinctively to where the music was
The Mayor of Casterbridge |
