| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Euthydemus by Plato: CRITO: I think not, Socrates.
SOCRATES: But then what is this knowledge, and what are we to do with it?
For it is not the source of any works which are neither good nor evil, and
gives no knowledge, but the knowledge of itself; what then can it be, and
what are we to do with it? Shall we say, Crito, that it is the knowledge
by which we are to make other men good?
CRITO: By all means.
SOCRATES: And in what will they be good and useful? Shall we repeat that
they will make others good, and that these others will make others again,
without ever determining in what they are to be good; for we have put aside
the results of politics, as they are called. This is the old, old song
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Iliad by Homer: is it some young girl to hide and lie with? It is not well that
you, the ruler of the Achaeans, should bring them into such
misery. Weakling cowards, women rather than men, let us sail
home, and leave this fellow here at Troy to stew in his own meeds
of honour, and discover whether we were of any service to him or
no. Achilles is a much better man than he is, and see how he has
treated him--robbing him of his prize and keeping it himself.
Achilles takes it meekly and shows no fight; if he did, son of
Atreus, you would never again insult him."
Thus railed Thersites, but Ulysses at once went up to him and
rebuked him sternly. "Check your glib tongue, Thersites," said
The Iliad |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from A Start in Life by Honore de Balzac: "They are nearer, at any rate," said the count.
"The women of the harem couldn't speak a word of French, and that
language is indispensable for talking. Ali gave me five legitimate
wives and ten slaves; that's equivalent to having none at all at
Janina. In the East, you must know, it is thought very bad style to
have wives and women. They have them, just as we have Voltaire and
Rousseau; but who ever opens his Voltaire or his Rousseau? Nobody.
But, for all that, the highest style is to be jealous. They sew a
woman up in a sack and fling her into the water on the slightest
suspicion,--that's according to their Code."
"Did you fling any in?" asked the farmer.
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