| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Village Rector by Honore de Balzac: curious phenomenon in the progressive rise in the cost of meat. In
twenty years from now, in 1850, Paris, which paid seven to eleven sous
for a pound of beef in 1814, will be paying twenty--unless there comes
a man of genius who can carry out the plan of Charles X."
"You have laid your finger on the mortal wound of France," said the
/juge de paix/. "The root of our evils lies in the section relating to
inheritance in the Civil Code, in which the equal division of property
among heirs is ordained. That's the pestle that pounds territory into
crumbs, individualizes fortunes, and takes from them their needful
stability; decomposing ever and never recomposing,--a state of things
which must end in the ruin of France. The French Revolution emitted a
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Theaetetus by Plato: answer the name of some art or science is ridiculous; for the question is,
'What is knowledge?' and he replies, 'A knowledge of this or that.'
THEAETETUS: True.
SOCRATES: Moreover, he might answer shortly and simply, but he makes an
enormous circuit. For example, when asked about the clay, he might have
said simply, that clay is moistened earth--what sort of clay is not to the
point.
THEAETETUS: Yes, Socrates, there is no difficulty as you put the question.
You mean, if I am not mistaken, something like what occurred to me and to
my friend here, your namesake Socrates, in a recent discussion.
SOCRATES: What was that, Theaetetus?
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from A Personal Record by Joseph Conrad: any sort of fun in the evening after loafing like this all day;
even the banjo lost its charm since there was nothing to prevent
his strumming on it all the time between the meals. The good
Paramor--he was really a most excellent fellow--became unhappy as
far as was possible to his cheery nature, till one dreary day I
suggested, out of sheer mischief, that he should employ the
dormant energies of the crew in hauling both cables up on deck
and turning them end for end.
For a moment Mr. Paramor was radiant. "Excellent idea!" but
directly his face fell. "Why . . . Yes! But we can't make that
job last more than three days," he muttered, discontentedly. I
A Personal Record |
