| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Woman and Labour by Olive Schreiner: simply to cast him off, and free itself for ever of its burden. But when
the morning dawns and lights the hills and valleys he has travelled,
looking backward, he may perceive that the spot where his beast reared,
planting its feet into the earth, and where it refused to move farther on
the old road, was indeed the edge of a mighty precipice, down which one
step more would have precipitated both horse and rider. And he may then
see that it was an instinct wiser than his own which lead his creature,
though in the dark, to leap backward, seeking a new path along which both
might travel. (Is it not recorded that even Balaam's ass on which he rode
saw the angel with flaming sword, but Balaam saw it not?)
In the confusion and darkness of the present, it may well seem to some,
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Scaramouche by Rafael Sabatini: philosophy of this eighteenth century."
Acclamations broke out unstintedly now. He had caught them in the
snare of his oratory. And he pressed his advantage instantly.
"Let us all swear," he cried in a great voice, "to raise up in the
name of humanity and of liberty a rampart against our enemies, to
oppose to their bloodthirsty covetousness the calm perseverance of
men whose cause is just. And let us protest here and in advance
against any tyrannical decrees that should declare us seditious when
we have none but pure and just intentions. Let us make oath upon
the honour of our motherland that should any of us be seized by an
unjust tribunal, intending against us one of those acts termed of
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Charmides by Plato: naked and undisguised? he is just of an age at which he will like to talk.
That he will, said Critias, and I can tell you that he is a philosopher
already, and also a considerable poet, not in his own opinion only, but in
that of others.
That, my dear Critias, I replied, is a distinction which has long been in
your family, and is inherited by you from Solon. But why do you not call
him, and show him to us? for even if he were younger than he is, there
could be no impropriety in his talking to us in the presence of you, who
are his guardian and cousin.
Very well, he said; then I will call him; and turning to the attendant, he
said, Call Charmides, and tell him that I want him to come and see a
|
