| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Black Tulip by Alexandre Dumas: your pity. Alas! perhaps it will not be much longer. You
don't know, sir, what I suffer. You don't know the struggle
going on in my heart and mind. For after all," Cornelius
cried in despair, "if this were my tulip, if it were the one
which has been stolen from Rosa! Oh, I must alight, sir! I
must see the flower! You may kill me afterwards if you like,
but I will see it, I must see it."
"Be quiet, unfortunate man, and come quickly back into the
carriage, for here is the escort of his Highness the
Stadtholder, and if the Prince observed any disturbance, or
heard any noise, it would be ruin to me, as well as to you."
The Black Tulip |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Lysis by Plato: sake of another, are illusions and deceptions only, but where that first
principle is, there is the true ideal of friendship. Let me put the matter
thus: Suppose the case of a great treasure (this may be a son, who is more
precious to his father than all his other treasures); would not the father,
who values his son above all things, value other things also for the sake
of his son? I mean, for instance, if he knew that his son had drunk
hemlock, and the father thought that wine would save him, he would value
the wine?
He would.
And also the vessel which contains the wine?
Certainly.
Lysis |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Statesman by Plato: left outside the pale will always be dangerous to those who are within,
while on the other hand the leaven of the mob can hardly affect the
representation of a great country. There is reason for the argument in
favour of a property qualification; there is reason also in the arguments
of those who would include all and so exhaust the political situation.
The true answer to the question is relative to the circumstances of
nations. How can we get the greatest intelligence combined with the
greatest power? The ancient legislator would have found this question more
easy than we do. For he would have required that all persons who had a
share of government should have received their education from the state and
have borne her burdens, and should have served in her fleets and armies.
Statesman |
