| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Phaedrus by Plato: Stesichorus when he had reviled the lovely Helen he will sing a palinode
for having blasphemed the majesty of love. His palinode takes the form of
a myth.
Socrates begins his tale with a glorification of madness, which he divides
into four kinds: first, there is the art of divination or prophecy--this,
in a vein similar to that pervading the Cratylus and Io, he connects with
madness by an etymological explanation (mantike, manike--compare
oionoistike, oionistike, ''tis all one reckoning, save the phrase is a
little variations'); secondly, there is the art of purification by
mysteries; thirdly, poetry or the inspiration of the Muses (compare Ion),
without which no man can enter their temple. All this shows that madness
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Odyssey by Homer: had sacked the steep city of Priam, and had departed in our
ships, and a god had scattered the Achaeans, even then did
Zeus devise in his heart a pitiful returning for the
Argives, for in no wise were they all discreet or just.
Wherefore many of them met with an ill faring by reason of
the deadly wrath of the grey-eyed goddess, the daughter of
the mighty sire, who set debate between the two sons of
Atreus. And they twain called to the gathering of the host
all the Achaeans, recklessly and out of order, against the
going down of the sun; and lo, the sons of the Achaeans
came heavy with wine. And the Atreidae spake out and told
The Odyssey |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Letters from England by Elizabeth Davis Bancroft: The hour was halfpast nine, and as his house is two miles off I had
to be up wondrous early for me. The weather has been very cold for
this climate for the last few days, though we should think it
moderate. They know nothing of extreme cold here. But, to return
to or breakfast, where, notwithstanding the cold, the guests were
punctually assembled: The Marquis of Northampton and his sisters,
the Bishop of London with his black apron, Sir Stratford Canning,
Mr. Rutherford, Lord Advocate for Scotland, the Solicitor-General
and one or two others. The conversation was very agreeable and I
enjoyed my first specimen of an English breakfast exceedingly. . . .
Our invitations jostle each other, now Parliament has begun, for
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