| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Lysis by Plato: him without creating a sense of his own superiority; he will find out his
mental trials, but only that he may minister to them. Among true friends
jealousy has no place: they do not complain of one another for making new
friends, or for not revealing some secret of their lives; (in friendship
too there must be reserves;) they do not intrude upon one another, and they
mutually rejoice in any good which happens to either of them, though it may
be to the loss of the other. They may live apart and have little
intercourse, but when they meet, the old tie is as strong as ever--
according to the common saying, they find one another always the same. The
greatest good of friendship is not daily intercourse, for circumstances
rarely admit of this; but on the great occasions of life, when the advice
Lysis |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Historical Lecturers and Essays by Charles Kingsley: light, to be conquered by Alexander and his Greeks even more rapidly
and more shamefully than they had conquered the East.
This is the short epic of the Persian Empire, ending, alas! as all
human epics are wont to end, sadly, if not shamefully.
But let me ask you, Did I say too much, when I said, that to these
Persians we owe that we are here to-night?
I do not say that without them we should not have been here. God, I
presume, when He is minded to do anything, has more than one way of
doing it.
But that we are now the last link in a chain of causes and effects
which reaches as far back as the emigration of the Persians
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Mayflower Compact: of Virginia; doe, by these Presents, solemnly and mutually
in the Presence of God and one of another, covenant and
combine ourselves together into a civill Body Politick,
for our better Ordering and Preservation, and Furtherance
of the Ends aforesaid; And by Virtue hereof do enact,
constitute, and frame, such just and equall Laws, Ordinances,
Acts, Constitutions, and Offices, from time to time,
as shall be thought most meete and convenient for the
Generall Good of the Colonie; unto which we promise
all due Submission and Obedience.
In Witness whereof we have hereunto subscribed our names
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