| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Gorgias by Plato: feeling but rhetoric? And if rhetoric is used on one side only we shall be
always in danger of being deceived. And so the words of Socrates, which at
first sounded paradoxical, come home to the experience of all of us.
Third Thesis:--
We do not what we will, but what we wish.
Socrates would teach us a lesson which we are slow to learn--that good
intentions, and even benevolent actions, when they are not prompted by
wisdom, are of no value. We believe something to be for our good which we
afterwards find out not to be for our good. The consequences may be
inevitable, for they may follow an invariable law, yet they may often be
the very opposite of what is expected by us. When we increase pauperism by
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Euthyphro by Plato: and exposure.
This is the origin of the charge of murder which Euthyphro brings against
his father. Socrates is confident that before he could have undertaken the
responsibility of such a prosecution, he must have been perfectly informed
of the nature of piety and impiety; and as he is going to be tried for
impiety himself, he thinks that he cannot do better than learn of Euthyphro
(who will be admitted by everybody, including the judges, to be an
unimpeachable authority) what piety is, and what is impiety. What then is
piety?
Euthyphro, who, in the abundance of his knowledge, is very willing to
undertake all the responsibility, replies: That piety is doing as I do,
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Wyoming by William MacLeod Raine: "I doubt if we can get out by the roads. Soon as we reach the end
of the street we better cut across that hayfield," suggested Ned.
"That's whatever. Then we'll slip past the sentries without being
seen. I'd hate to spoil any of them if we can help it. We're
liable to get ourselves disliked if our guns spatter too much."
They rode through the main street, still noisy with the shouts of
late revelers returning to their quarters. Masked men were yet in
evidence occasionally, so that their habits caused neither remark
nor suspicion. A good many of the punchers, unable to stay
longer, were slipping out of town after having made a night of
it. In the general exodus the two friends hoped to escape
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