| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Lysis by Plato: as he likes.' 'Of course not: the very slaves have more liberty than he
has.' 'But how is this?' 'The reason is that he is not old enough.' 'No;
the real reason is that he is not wise enough: for are there not some
things which he is allowed to do, although he is not allowed to do others?'
'Yes, because he knows them, and does not know the others.' This leads to
the conclusion that all men everywhere will trust him in what he knows, but
not in what he does not know; for in such matters he will be unprofitable
to them, and do them no good. And no one will love him, if he does them no
good; and he can only do them good by knowledge; and as he is still without
knowledge, he can have as yet no conceit of knowledge. In this manner
Socrates reads a lesson to Hippothales, the foolish lover of Lysis,
Lysis |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Familiar Studies of Men and Books by Robert Louis Stevenson: older than Samuel Pepys. For in the Diary we can find more
than one such note of perfect childish egotism; as when he
explains that his candle is going out, "which makes me write
thus slobberingly;" or as in this incredible particularity,
"To my study, where I only wrote thus much of this day's
passages to this *, and so out again;" or lastly, as here,
with more of circumstance: "I staid up till the bellman came
by with his bell under my window, AS I WAS WRITING OF THIS
VERY LINE, and cried, `Past one of the clock, and a cold,
frosty, windy morning.'" Such passages are not to be
misunderstood. The appeal to Samuel Pepys years hence is
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Koran: bear witness against them of what they did, on that day God will pay
them their just due; and they shall know that God, He is the plain
truth.
The vile women to the vile men, and the vile men to the vile
women; and the good women to the good men, and the good men to the
good women: these are clear of what they say to them forgiveness and a
noble provision!
O ye who believe! enter not into houses which are not your own
houses, until ye have asked leave and saluted the people thereof, that
is better for you; haply ye may be mindful. And if ye find no one
therein, then do not enter them until permission is given you, and
The Koran |
