| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Meno by Plato: not only not to be teachers of others, but to be ignorant themselves, and
bad at the knowledge of that which they are professing to teach? or is
there anything about which even the acknowledged 'gentlemen' are sometimes
saying that 'this thing can be taught,' and sometimes the opposite? Can
you say that they are teachers in any true sense whose ideas are in such
confusion?
MENO: I should say, certainly not.
SOCRATES: But if neither the Sophists nor the gentlemen are teachers,
clearly there can be no other teachers?
MENO: No.
SOCRATES: And if there are no teachers, neither are there disciples?
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Statesman by Plato: truest result.
YOUNG SOCRATES: Clearly.
STRANGER: And now, I will not wait for you to ask the, but will of my own
accord take you by the shorter road to the definition of a king.
YOUNG SOCRATES: By all means.
STRANGER: I say that we should have begun at first by dividing land
animals into biped and quadruped; and since the winged herd, and that
alone, comes out in the same class with man, we should divide bipeds into
those which have feathers and those which have not, and when they have been
divided, and the art of the management of mankind is brought to light, the
time will have come to produce our Statesman and ruler, and set him like a
Statesman |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Fanny Herself by Edna Ferber: It was plain that he was disturbed. "That woman," he began.
"Pardon me, Mrs. Brandeis. She came to me. She says she is
starving. She is alone there, in Vienna. Her--well, she is
alone. The war is everywhere. They say it will last for
years. She wept and pleaded with me to take her here."
"No!" cried Fanny. "Don't let him hear it. He mustn't
know. He----"
"Yes, I know. She is a paradox, that woman. I tell you,
she almost prevailed on me. There is something about her;
something that repels and compels." That struck him as
being a very fine phrase indeed, and he repeated it
Fanny Herself |
