| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Parmenides by Plato: digressing further from the immediate subject of the Parmenides, we may
remark that Plato is quite serious in his objections to his own doctrines:
nor does Socrates attempt to offer any answer to them. The perplexities
which surround the one and many in the sphere of the Ideas are also alluded
to in the Philebus, and no answer is given to them. Nor have they ever
been answered, nor can they be answered by any one else who separates the
phenomenal from the real. To suppose that Plato, at a later period of his
life, reached a point of view from which he was able to answer them, is a
groundless assumption. The real progress of Plato's own mind has been
partly concealed from us by the dogmatic statements of Aristotle, and also
by the degeneracy of his own followers, with whom a doctrine of numbers
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Virginian by Owen Wister: among them, courageous with whiskey.
All the fools now made themselves conspicuous. One lay on the
floor, knocked there by the Virginian, whose arm he had attempted
to hold. Others struggled with Trampas, and his bullet smashed
the ceiling before they could drag the pistol from him. "There
now! there now!" they interposed; "you don't want to talk like
that," for he was pouring out a tide of hate and vilification.
Yet the Virginian stood quiet by the bar, and many an eye of
astonishment was turned upon him. "I'd not stand half that
language," some muttered to each other. Still the Virginian
waited quietly, while the fools reasoned with Trampas. But no
The Virginian |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Message by Honore de Balzac: coolly courteous expression and an adorable pout, in which I, who
knew her secret, could read the full extent of her
disappointment. I sought, but sought in vain, to remember any of
the elegant phrases so laboriously prepared.
This momentary hesitation gave the lady's husband time to come
forward. Thoughts by the myriad flitted through my brain. To give
myself a countenance, I got out a few sufficiently feeble
inquiries, asking whether the persons present were really M. le
Comte and Mme. la Comtesse de Montpersan. These imbecilities gave
me time to form my own conclusions at a glance, and, with a
perspicacity rare at that age, to analyze the husband and wife
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