| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Apology by Plato: and this defect in them overshadowed their wisdom; and therefore I asked
myself on behalf of the oracle, whether I would like to be as I was,
neither having their knowledge nor their ignorance, or like them in both;
and I made answer to myself and to the oracle that I was better off as I
was.
This inquisition has led to my having many enemies of the worst and most
dangerous kind, and has given occasion also to many calumnies. And I am
called wise, for my hearers always imagine that I myself possess the wisdom
which I find wanting in others: but the truth is, O men of Athens, that
God only is wise; and by his answer he intends to show that the wisdom of
men is worth little or nothing; he is not speaking of Socrates, he is only
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Othello by William Shakespeare: she holds it a vice in her goodnesse, not to do more
then she is requested. This broken ioynt betweene
you, and her husband, entreat her to splinter. And my
Fortunes against any lay worth naming, this cracke of
your Loue, shall grow stronger, then it was before
Cassio. You aduise me well
Iago. I protest in the sinceritie of Loue, and honest
kindnesse
Cassio. I thinke it freely: and betimes in the morning,
I will beseech the vertuous Desdemona to vndertake
for me: I am desperate of my Fortunes if they check me
Othello |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Myths and Myth-Makers by John Fiske: rendered by Longfellow, doubting how with God a thousand years
ago could be as yesterday, listened three minutes entranced by
the singing of a bird in the forest, and found, on waking from
his revery, that a thousand years had flown. To the same
family of legends belong the notion that St. John is sleeping
at Ephesus until the last days of the world; the myth of the
enchanter Merlin, spell-bound by Vivien; the story of the
Cretan philosopher Epimenides, who dozed away fifty-seven
years in a cave; and Rip Van Winkle's nap in the
Catskills.[14]
[14] A collection of these interesting legends may be found in
Myths and Myth-Makers |
