| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Heroes by Charles Kingsley: and he embraced his mother, and Dictys his good foster-
father, and they wept over each other a long while, for it
was seven years and more since they had met.
Then Perseus went out, and up to the hall of Polydectes; and
underneath the goat-skin he bore the Gorgon's head.
And when he came into the hall, Polydectes sat at the table-
head, and all his nobles and landowners on either side, each
according to his rank, feasting on the fish and the goat's
flesh, and drinking the blood-red wine. The harpers harped,
and the revellers shouted, and the wine-cups rang merrily as
they passed from hand to hand, and great was the noise in the
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Charmides by Plato: Then, I said, be cheerful, sweet sir, and give your opinion in answer to
the question which I asked, never minding whether Critias or Socrates is
the person refuted; attend only to the argument, and see what will come of
the refutation.
I think that you are right, he replied; and I will do as you say.
Tell me, then, I said, what you mean to affirm about wisdom.
I mean to say that wisdom is the only science which is the science of
itself as well as of the other sciences.
But the science of science, I said, will also be the science of the absence
of science.
Very true, he said.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Euthyphro by Plato: confidence of a Sophist; no doubt that he is right in prosecuting his
father has ever entered into his mind. Like a Sophist too, he is incapable
either of framing a general definition or of following the course of an
argument. His wrong-headedness, one-sidedness, narrowness, positiveness,
are characteristic of his priestly office. His failure to apprehend an
argument may be compared to a similar defect which is observable in the
rhapsode Ion. But he is not a bad man, and he is friendly to Socrates,
whose familiar sign he recognizes with interest. Though unable to follow
him he is very willing to be led by him, and eagerly catches at any
suggestion which saves him from the trouble of thinking. Moreover he is
the enemy of Meletus, who, as he says, is availing himself of the popular
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