| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Meno by Plato: higher one of science, in the spirit of one who desires to include in his
philosophy every aspect of human life; just as he recognizes the existence
of popular opinion as a fact, and the Sophists as the expression of it.
This Dialogue contains the first intimation of the doctrine of reminiscence
and of the immortality of the soul. The proof is very slight, even
slighter than in the Phaedo and Republic. Because men had abstract ideas
in a previous state, they must have always had them, and their souls
therefore must have always existed. For they must always have been either
men or not men. The fallacy of the latter words is transparent. And
Socrates himself appears to be conscious of their weakness; for he adds
immediately afterwards, 'I have said some things of which I am not
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Pupil by Henry James: talked with, he thought of that clumsy moment on the bench at Nice
as the dawn of an understanding that had broadened. What had added
to the clumsiness then was that he thought it his duty to declare
to Morgan that he might abuse him, Pemberton, as much as he liked,
but must never abuse his parents. To this Morgan had the easy
retort that he hadn't dreamed of abusing them; which appeared to be
true: it put Pemberton in the wrong.
"Then why am I a humbug for saying I think them charming?" the
young man asked, conscious of a certain rashness.
"Well - they're not your parents."
"They love you better than anything in the world - never forget
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie: were very much shaken. There was, in fact, so much evidence
against him that I was inclined to believe that he had not done
it."
"When did you change your mind?"
"When I found that the more efforts I made to clear him, the more
efforts he made to get himself arrested. Then, when I discovered
that Inglethorp had nothing to do with Mrs. Raikes and that in
fact it was John Cavendish who was interested in that quarter, I
was quite sure."
"But why?"
"Simply this. If it had been Inglethorp who was carrying on an
The Mysterious Affair at Styles |
