| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Philebus by Plato: whole calculation which follows, this fundamental uncertainty about the
word vitiates all the applications of it. Must we not admit that a notion
so uncertain in meaning, so void of content, so at variance with common
language and opinion, does not comply adequately with either of our two
requirements? It can neither strike the imaginative faculty, nor give an
explanation of phenomena which is in accordance with our individual
experience. It is indefinite; it supplies only a partial account of human
actions: it is one among many theories of philosophers. It may be
compared with other notions, such as the chief good of Plato, which may be
best expressed to us under the form of a harmony, or with Kant's obedience
to law, which may be summed up under the word 'duty,' or with the Stoical
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Secret Places of the Heart by H. G. Wells: Martin Leeds--"
"Aren't you rather abusing the secrets of the confessional?"
"This IS the confessional. It closes to-morrow morning but it
is the confessional still. Look at the thing frankly. You, I
say, are also at loose ends. Can you deny it? My dear sir,
don't we both know that ever since we left London you have
been ready to fall in love with any pretty thing in
petticoats that seemed to promise you three ha'porth of
kindness. A lost dog looking for a master! You're a stray man
looking for a mistress. Miss Grammont being a woman is a
little more selective than that. But if she's at a loose end
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Prince by Nicolo Machiavelli: dispersed his men throughout the Romagna, set out for Imola at the end
of November together with his French men-at-arms: thence he went to
Cesena, where he stayed some time to negotiate with the envoys of the
Vitelli and Orsini, who had assembled with their men in the duchy of
Urbino, as to the enterprise in which they should now take part; but
nothing being concluded, Oliverotto da Fermo was sent to propose that
if the duke wished to undertake an expedition against Tuscany they
were ready; if he did not wish it, then they would besiege Sinigalia.
To this the duke replied that he did not wish to enter into war with
Tuscany, and thus become hostile to the Florentines, but that he was
very willing to proceed against Sinigalia.
The Prince |
