| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Russia in 1919 by Arthur Ransome: you must bring everything to a standstill."
Litvinov asked him what he thought of the position as a
whole. He said good, if only transport could be improved;
but before the public of Moscow could feel an appreciable
improvement it would be necessary that a hundred wagons
of foodstuffs should be coming in daily. At present there
are seldom more than twenty. I asked Kamenev about the
schools, and he explained that one of their difficulties was
due to the militarism forced upon them by external attacks.
He explained that the new Red Army soldiers, being mostly
workmen, are accustomed to a higher standard of comfort
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Trooper Peter Halket of Mashonaland by Olive Schreiner: opened an old book more than two thousand years old: and he read: 'Now it
came to pass that Naboth the Jezreelite had a vineyard, which was in
Jezreel, hard by the palace of Ahab king of Samaria.
"'And Ahab spake unto Naboth, saying, Give me thy vineyard, that I may have
it for a garden of herbs, because it is near unto my house: and I will
give thee for it a better vineyard than it; or, if it seemeth good to thee,
I will give thee the worth of it in money.
"'And Naboth said to Ahab, The Lord forbid it me, that I should give the
inheritance of my father unto thee.
"'And Ahab came into his house heavy and displeased because of the word
which Naboth the Jezreelite had spoken unto him; for he had said, I will
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Laches by Plato: am quite willing to discourse with Socrates in his own manner; but you had
better ask our friend Laches what his feeling may be.
LACHES: I have but one feeling, Nicias, or (shall I say?) two feelings,
about discussions. Some would think that I am a lover, and to others I may
seem to be a hater of discourse; for when I hear a man discoursing of
virtue, or of any sort of wisdom, who is a true man and worthy of his
theme, I am delighted beyond measure: and I compare the man and his words,
and note the harmony and correspondence of them. And such an one I deem to
be the true musician, attuned to a fairer harmony than that of the lyre, or
any pleasant instrument of music; for truly he has in his own life a
harmony of words and deeds arranged, not in the Ionian, or in the Phrygian
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