| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Euthyphro by Plato: agreeable to Zeus but disagreeable to Cronos or Uranus, and what is
acceptable to Hephaestus but unacceptable to Here, and there may be other
gods who have similar differences of opinion.
EUTHYPHRO: But I believe, Socrates, that all the gods would be agreed as
to the propriety of punishing a murderer: there would be no difference of
opinion about that.
SOCRATES: Well, but speaking of men, Euthyphro, did you ever hear any one
arguing that a murderer or any sort of evil-doer ought to be let off?
EUTHYPHRO: I should rather say that these are the questions which they are
always arguing, especially in courts of law: they commit all sorts of
crimes, and there is nothing which they will not do or say in their own
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from La Grenadiere by Honore de Balzac: go to Brest, and go to sea as an apprentice. While Marie is at school,
I will rise to be a lieutenant on board a man-of-war. There, after
all, die in peace, my mother; I shall come back again a rich man, and
our little one shall go to the Ecole polytechnique, and I will find a
career to suit his bent."
A gleam of joy shone in the dying woman's eyes. Two tears brimmed
over, and fell over her fevered cheeks; then a deep sigh escaped
between her lips. The sudden joy of finding the father's spirit in the
son, who had grown all at once to be a man, almost killed her.
"Angel of heaven," she cried, weeping, "by one word you have effaced
all my sorrows. Ah! I can bear them.--This is my son," she said, "I
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Dreams by Olive Schreiner: others; those who reach the higher may always go down to rest in the lower;
but those in the lower may not have strength to climb to the higher;
nevertheless the light is all one."
And I saw over the bridge nearest me, which was wider than the other,
countless footmarks go. I asked God why so many went over it.
God said, "It slopes less deeply, and leads to the first heaven."
And I saw that some of the footmarks were of feet returning. I asked God
how it was.
He said, "No man who has once entered Heaven ever leaves it; but some, when
they have gone half way, turn back, because they are afraid there is no
land beyond."
|
