| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Statesman by Plato: long been in despair of finding the true ruler; and therefore are ready to
acquiesce in any of the five or six received forms of government as better
than none. And the best thing which they can do (though only the second
best in reality), is to reduce the ideal state to the conditions of actual
life. Thus in the Statesman, as in the Laws, we have three forms of
government, which we may venture to term, (1) the ideal, (2) the practical,
(3) the sophistical--what ought to be, what might be, what is. And thus
Plato seems to stumble, almost by accident, on the notion of a
constitutional monarchy, or of a monarchy ruling by laws.
The divine foundations of a State are to be laid deep in education
(Republic), and at the same time some little violence may be used in
Statesman |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Firm of Nucingen by Honore de Balzac: consciences. There, my good Finot," he added soothingly, "I will get
on with my story without personalities, and we shall be quits."
"Now," said Couture with a smile, "he will begin to prove for our
benefit that Nucingen made Rastignac's fortune."
"You are not so far out as you think," returned Bixiou. "You do not
know what Nucingen is, financially speaking."
"Do you know so much as a word as to his beginnings?" asked Blondet.
"I have only known him in his own house," said Bixiou, "but we may
have seen each other in the street in the old days."
"The prosperity of the firm of Nucingen is one of the most
extraordinary things seen in our days," began Blondet. "In 1804
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Voice of the City by O. Henry: night when the hour was so late as to promise no
further diversion in the arch domains of sport. By
that time the occupant of the monogamistic harem
would be in dreamland, the bulbul silenced and the
hour propitious for slumber.
"Big Jim" always arose at twelve, meridian, for
breakfast, and soon afterward he would return to
the rendezvous of his "crowd."
He was always vaguely conscious that there was
a Mrs. Dougherty. He would have received without
denial the charge that the quiet, neat, comfortable
The Voice of the City |
