| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Philebus by Plato: ages. The more serious attacks on traditional beliefs which are often
veiled under an unusual simplicity or irony are of this kind. Such, for
example, is the excessive and more than human awe which Socrates expresses
about the names of the gods, which may be not unaptly compared with the
importance attached by mankind to theological terms in other ages; for this
also may be comprehended under the satire of Socrates. Let us observe the
religious and intellectual enthusiasm which shines forth in the following,
'The power and faculty of loving the truth, and of doing all things for the
sake of the truth': or, again, the singular acknowledgment which may be
regarded as the anticipation of a new logic, that 'In going to war for mind
I must have weapons of a different make from those which I used before,
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Droll Stories, V. 1 by Honore de Balzac: an attack of the Neapolitan sickness, and that for the future there
would be no security even with princesses of the highest birth--the
above-named Maille was compelled to quit the Court in order to go and
arrange certain affairs of great importance in Piedmont. You may be
sure that he was very loath to leave his good wife, so young, so
delicate, so sprightly, in the midst of the dangers, temptations,
snares and pitfalls of this gallant assemblage, which comprised so
many handsome fellows, bold as eagles, proud of mein, and as fond of
women as the people are partial to Paschal hams. In this state of
intense jealousy everything made him ill at ease; but by dint of much
thinking, it occurred to him to make sure of his wife in the manner
Droll Stories, V. 1 |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Democracy In America, Volume 2 by Alexis de Toqueville: gives an interesting account of the manners, customs, and
government of the Indians at that period. There is a good deal
of talent and originality in this part of the work. Lawson
concludes his history with a copy of the charter granted to the
Carolinas in the reign of Charles II. The general tone of this
work is light, and often licentious, forming a perfect contrast
to the solemn style of the works published at the same period in
New England. Lawson's history is extremely scarce in America, and
cannot be procured in Europe. There is, however, a copy of it in
the Royal Library at Paris.
From the southern extremity of the United States, I pass at
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