| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from De Profundis by Oscar Wilde: greater tragedies than poverty or sorrow. And as for altruism, who
knew better than he that it is vocation not volition that
determines us, and that one cannot gather grapes of thorns or figs
from thistles?
To live for others as a definite self-conscious aim was not his
creed. It was not the basis of his creed. When he says, 'Forgive
your enemies,' it is not for the sake of the enemy, but for one's
own sake that he says so, and because love is more beautiful than
hate. In his own entreaty to the young man, 'Sell all that thou
hast and give to the poor,' it is not of the state of the poor that
he is thinking but of the soul of the young man, the soul that
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Garden Party by Katherine Mansfield: hired waiters ran from the house to the marquee. Wherever you looked there
were couples strolling, bending to the flowers, greeting, moving on over
the lawn. They were like bright birds that had alighted in the Sheridans'
garden for this one afternoon, on their way to--where? Ah, what happiness
it is to be with people who all are happy, to press hands, press cheeks,
smile into eyes.
"Darling Laura, how well you look!"
"What a becoming hat, child!"
"Laura, you look quite Spanish. I've never seen you look so striking."
And Laura, glowing, answered softly, "Have you had tea? Won't you have an
ice? The passion-fruit ices really are rather special." She ran to her
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Charmides by Plato: interest in maintaining. The preceding definition, 'Temperance is doing
one's own business,' is assumed to have been borrowed by Charmides from
another; and when the enquiry becomes more abstract he is superseded by
Critias (Theaet.; Euthyd.). Socrates preserves his accustomed irony to the
end; he is in the neighbourhood of several great truths, which he views in
various lights, but always either by bringing them to the test of common
sense, or by demanding too great exactness in the use of words, turns aside
from them and comes at last to no conclusion.
The definitions of temperance proceed in regular order from the popular to
the philosophical. The first two are simple enough and partially true,
like the first thoughts of an intelligent youth; the third, which is a real
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