| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Laches by Plato: soldier; and not only who are courageous in war, but who are courageous in
perils by sea, and who in disease, or in poverty, or again in politics, are
courageous; and not only who are courageous against pain or fear, but
mighty to contend against desires and pleasures, either fixed in their rank
or turning upon their enemy. There is this sort of courage--is there not,
Laches?
LACHES: Certainly, Socrates.
SOCRATES: And all these are courageous, but some have courage in
pleasures, and some in pains: some in desires, and some in fears, and some
are cowards under the same conditions, as I should imagine.
LACHES: Very true.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Anabasis by Xenophon: Master of Balliol College
Regius Professor of Greek in the University of Oxford
Xenophon the Athenian was born 431 B.C. He was a
pupil of Socrates. He marched with the Spartans,
and was exiled from Athens. Sparta gave him land
and property in Scillus, where he lived for many
years before having to move once more, to settle
in Corinth. He died in 354 B.C.
The Anabasis is his story of the march to Persia
to aid Cyrus, who enlisted Greek help to try and
take the throne from Artaxerxes, and the ensuing
Anabasis |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Montezuma's Daughter by H. Rider Haggard: Then the woman--for it was a woman--advanced slowly towards us, and
as she came we saw that she was draped in graveclothes. Presently
she lifted her head and the moonlight fell full upon her face. Now
Montezuma groaned aloud and I groaned, for we saw that the face was
the thin pale face of the princess Papantzin--Papantzin who had
lain four days in the grave. On she came toward us, gliding like
one who walks in her sleep, till she stopped before the bush in the
shadow of which we stood. Now Papantzin, or the ghost of
Papantzin, looked at us with blind eyes, that is with eyes that
were open and yet did not seem to see.
'Are you there, Montezuma, my brother?' she said in the voice of
Montezuma's Daughter |
