| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Parmenides by Plato: in this, how can it be in them all?
It cannot.
Nor can the whole be in some of the parts; for if the whole were in some of
the parts, the greater would be in the less, which is impossible.
Yes, impossible.
But if the whole is neither in one, nor in more than one, nor in all of the
parts, it must be in something else, or cease to be anywhere at all?
Certainly.
If it were nowhere, it would be nothing; but being a whole, and not being
in itself, it must be in another.
Very true.
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Enemies of Books by William Blades: provided for the books by Pepys himself; but no one can gain admission
except in company of two Fellows of the College, and if a single book
be lost, the whole library goes away to a neighbouring college.
However willing and anxious to oblige, it is evident that no one
can use the library at the expense of the time, if not temper,
of two Fellows. Some similar restrictions are in force at
the Teylerian Museum, Haarlem, where a lifelong imprisonment is
inflicted upon its many treasures.
Some centuries ago a valuable collection of books was left to
the Guildford Endowed Grammar School. The schoolmaster was to be
held personally responsible for the safety of every volume, which,
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Miracle Mongers and Their Methods by Harry Houdini: in this phenomenon, with some portion of
artifice.
In Timbs' Curiosities of London, published
in 1867, I find the following:
At the Argyle Rooms, London, in 1829,
Mons. Chabert, the Fire-King, exhibited
his powers of resisting poisons, and
withstanding extreme heat. He swallowed
forty grains of phosphorus, sipped oil at
333 degrees with impunity, and rubbed a red-hot
fire-shovel over his tongue, hair, and face,
Miracle Mongers and Their Methods |
