| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Meno by Plato: but he thinks that men should be taught to speak.
SOCRATES: Then do you not think that the Sophists are teachers?
MENO: I cannot tell you, Socrates; like the rest of the world, I am in
doubt, and sometimes I think that they are teachers and sometimes not.
SOCRATES: And are you aware that not you only and other politicians have
doubts whether virtue can be taught or not, but that Theognis the poet says
the very same thing?
MENO: Where does he say so?
SOCRATES: In these elegiac verses (Theog.):
'Eat and drink and sit with the mighty, and make yourself agreeable to
them; for from the good you will learn what is good, but if you mix with
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Symposium by Plato: doings then and my sayings now. But let the attendants and other profane
and unmannered persons close up the doors of their ears.
When the lamp was put out and the servants had gone away, I thought that I
must be plain with him and have no more ambiguity. So I gave him a shake,
and I said: 'Socrates, are you asleep?' 'No,' he said. 'Do you know what
I am meditating? 'What are you meditating?' he said. 'I think,' I
replied, 'that of all the lovers whom I have ever had you are the only one
who is worthy of me, and you appear to be too modest to speak. Now I feel
that I should be a fool to refuse you this or any other favour, and
therefore I come to lay at your feet all that I have and all that my
friends have, in the hope that you will assist me in the way of virtue,
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Prufrock/Other Observations by T. S. Eliot: being part of it, until her teeth were only accidental stars with a
talent for squad-drill. I was drawn in by short gasps, inhaled at
each momentary recovery, lost finally in the dark caverns of her
throat, bruised by the ripple of unseen muscles. An elderly waiter
with trembling hands was hurriedly spreading a pink and white checked
cloth over the rusty green iron table, saying: "If the lady and
gentleman wish to take their tea in the garden, if the lady and
gentleman wish to take their tea in the garden ..." I decided that
if the shaking of her breasts could be stopped,some of the fragments
of the afternoon might be collected, and I concentrated my attention
with careful subtlety to this end.
Prufrock/Other Observations |
