| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Parmenides by Plato: criticizes the inconsistency of his own doctrine of universals and draws
out the endless consequences which flow from the assertion either that
'Being is' or that 'Being is not,' by no means intends to deny the
existence of universals or the unity under which they are comprehended.
There is nothing further from his thoughts than scepticism. But before
proceeding he must examine the foundations which he and others have been
laying; there is nothing true which is not from some point of view untrue,
nothing absolute which is not also relative (compare Republic).
And so, in modern times, because we are called upon to analyze our ideas
and to come to a distinct understanding about the meaning of words; because
we know that the powers of language are very unequal to the subtlety of
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Barnaby Rudge by Charles Dickens: look, or gesture indicating grief, escaped him.
He drew his sword; felt for a moment in his breast, as though he
carried other arms about him; then grasping Solomon by the wrist
again, went with a cautious step all round the house. He looked
into every doorway and gap in the wall; retraced his steps at every
rustling of the air among the leaves; and searched in every
shadowed nook with outstretched hands. Thus they made the circuit
of the building: but they returned to the spot from which they had
set out, without encountering any human being, or finding the least
trace of any concealed straggler.
After a short pause, Mr Haredale shouted twice or thrice. Then
Barnaby Rudge |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift: me into good humour, and make me more diverting."
Every day, when I waited on him, beside the trouble he was at in
teaching, he would ask me several questions concerning myself,
which I answered as well as I could, and by these means he had
already received some general ideas, though very imperfect. It
would be tedious to relate the several steps by which I advanced
to a more regular conversation; but the first account I gave of
myself in any order and length was to this purpose:
"That I came from a very far country, as I already had attempted
to tell him, with about fifty more of my own species; that we
travelled upon the seas in a great hollow vessel made of wood,
Gulliver's Travels |
