| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Lesser Hippias by Plato: SOCRATES: Then they are prudent, I suppose?
HIPPIAS: So they are--very.
SOCRATES: And if they are prudent, do they know or do they not know what
they do?
HIPPIAS: Of course, they know very well; and that is why they do mischief
to others.
SOCRATES: And having this knowledge, are they ignorant, or are they wise?
HIPPIAS: Wise, certainly; at least, in so far as they can deceive.
SOCRATES: Stop, and let us recall to mind what you are saying; are you not
saying that the false are powerful and prudent and knowing and wise in
those things about which they are false?
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from A Heap O' Livin' by Edgar A. Guest: it's a cane,
And the merry answering chorus: "No, it's
not. Just guess again!"
It's guessing time at our house, and the fun is
running fast,
And I wish somehow this contest of delight
could always last,
For the love that's in their faces and their laugh-
ter ringing clear
Is their dad's most precious present when the
Christmas time is near.
A Heap O' Livin' |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Egmont by Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe: steeds of time bear onward the light car of our destiny; and nothing
remains for us but, with calm self-possession, firmly to grasp the reins,
and now right, now left, to steer the wheels here from the precipice and
there from the rock. Whither he is hasting, who knows? Does any one
consider whence he came?
Secretary. My lord! my lord!
Egmont. I stand high, but I can and must rise yet higher. Courage,
strength, and hope possess my soul. Not yet have I attained the height of
my ambition; that once achieved, I will stand firmly and without fear.
Should I fall, should a thunder-clap, a storm-blast, ay, a false step of my
own, precipitate me into the abyss, so be it! I shall lie there with thousands
Egmont |
