| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Eryxias by Platonic Imitator: kinsmen, the most bitter hatred may arise betwixt you, I must hinder your
dissension to the best of my power. If I could, I would tell you the
truth, and so put an end to the dispute; but as I cannot do this, and each
of you supposes that you can bring the other to an agreement, I am
prepared, as far as my capacity admits, to help you in solving the
question. Please, therefore, Critias, try to make us accept the doctrines
which you yourself entertain.
CRITIAS: I should like to follow up the argument, and will ask Eryxias
whether he thinks that there are just and unjust men?
ERYXIAS: Most decidedly.
CRITIAS: And does injustice seem to you an evil or a good?
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Alexandria and her Schools by Charles Kingsley: beings higher than man, one glorious order of love and wisdom, linking
them all to Him from whom they all proceed, rays from His cloudless
sunlight, mirrors of His eternal glory.
But as the Elizabethan age, exhausted by its own fertility, gave place
to the Caroline, Neoplatonism ran through much the same changes. It was
good for us, after all, that the plain strength of the Puritans,
unphilosophical as they were, swept it away. One feels in reading the
later Neoplatonists, Henry More, Smith, even Cudworth (valuable as he
is), that the old accursed distinction between the philosopher, the
scholar, the illuminate, and the plain righteous man, was growing up
again very fast. The school from which the "Religio Medici" issued was
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Wrecker by Stevenson & Osbourne: wept to see it. All disabilities were piled on that weak back--
domestic misfortune, nervous disease, a displeasing exterior,
empty pockets, and the slavery of vice.
I will never deny that our prolonged conjunction was the result
of double cowardice. Each was afraid to leave the other, each
was afraid to speak, or knew not what to say. Save for my ill-
judged allusion at Gloucester, the subject uppermost in both
our minds was buried. Carthew, Stallbridge-le-Carthew,
Stallbridge-Minster--which we had long since (and severally)
identified to be the nearest station--even the name of
Dorsetshire was studiously avoided. And yet we were making
|
