| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Apology by Xenophon: sentence of death be passed upon me, it is plain I shall be allowed to
meet an end which, in the opinion of those who have studied the
matter, is not only the easiest in itself, but one which will cause
the least trouble to one's friends,[15] while engendering the deepest
longing for the departed. For of necessity he will only be thought of
with regret and longing who leaves nothing behind unseemly or
discomfortable to haunt the imagination of those beside him, but,
sound of body, and his soul still capable of friendly repose, fades
tranquilly away."
[1] Or, "Socrates' Defence before the Dicasts." For the title of the
work see Grote, "H. G." viii. 641; Schneid. ap. L. Dindorf's note
The Apology |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Out of Time's Abyss by Edgar Rice Burroughs: of a little natural amphitheater in the hills and forming a clear
and beautiful pool overshadowed by trees upon one side and
bounded by a little clearing upon the other.
With the coming of the sun they saw they had stumbled upon a
place where they might remain hidden from the Wieroos for a long
time and also one that they could defend against these winged
creatures, since the trees would shield them from an attack from
above and also hamper the movements of the creatures should they
attempt to follow them into the wood.
For three days they rested here before trying to explore the
neighboring country. On the fourth, Bradley stated that he was
Out of Time's Abyss |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Varieties of Religious Experience by William James: self-consciousness itself, in its independence and absoluteness,
or, in other words, an Absolute Thought or Self-Consciousness."
Here, you see, Principal Caird makes the transition which Kant
did not make: he converts the omnipresence of consciousness in
general as a condition of "truth" being anywhere possible, into
an omnipresent universal consciousness, which he identifies with
God in his concreteness. He next proceeds to use the principle
that to acknowledge your limits is in essence to be beyond them;
and makes the transition to the religious experience of
individuals in the following words:--
"If [Man] were only a creature of transient sensations and
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