| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Parmenides by Plato: and again, each kind of knowledge which we have, will be a knowledge of
each kind of being which we have?
Certainly.
But the ideas themselves, as you admit, we have not, and cannot have?
No, we cannot.
And the absolute natures or kinds are known severally by the absolute idea
of knowledge?
Yes.
And we have not got the idea of knowledge?
No.
Then none of the ideas are known to us, because we have no share in
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The People That Time Forgot by Edgar Rice Burroughs: the Pacific. Through this the picture gave one the suggestion
of a colossal impressionistic canvas in greens and browns and
scarlets and yellows surrounding the deep blue of the inland
sea--just blobs of color taking form through the tumbling mist.
I dived close to the cliffs and skirted them for several miles
without finding the least indication of a suitable landing-place;
and then I swung back at a lower level, looking for a clearing
close to the bottom of the mighty escarpment; but I could find
none of sufficient area to insure safety. I was flying pretty
low by this time, not only looking for landing places but watching
the myriad life beneath me. I was down pretty well toward the
The People That Time Forgot |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Virginian by Owen Wister: they were invisible dots in creation; like him, they were to feel
as nothing, to be swept up in the potent heat of his faith. So he
thrust out to them none of the sweet but all the bitter of his
creed, naked and stern as iron. Dogma was his all in all, and
poor humanity was nothing but flesh for its canyons.
Thus to kill what chance he had for being of use seemed to me
more deplorable than it did evidently to them. Their attention
merely wandered. Three hundred years ago they would have been
frightened; but not in this electric day. I saw Scipio stifling a
smile when it came to the doctrine of original sin. "We know of
its truth," said Dr. MacBride, "from the severe troubles and
The Virginian |
