| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Cratylus by Plato: of his dialogues as the Silenus Socrates; and through this medium we have
to receive our theory of language.
There remains a difficulty which seems to demand a more exact answer: In
what relation does the satirical or etymological portion of the dialogue
stand to the serious? Granting all that can be said about the provoking
irony of Socrates, about the parody of Euthyphro, or Prodicus, or
Antisthenes, how does the long catalogue of etymologies furnish any answer
to the question of Hermogenes, which is evidently the main thesis of the
dialogue: What is the truth, or correctness, or principle of names?
After illustrating the nature of correctness by the analogy of the arts,
and then, as in the Republic, ironically appealing to the authority of the
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne: showed twelve degrees, it was now only ten; we had gained two.
I need not say the temperature of the Nautilus was raised by its heating
apparatus to a much higher degree; every manoeuvre was accomplished
with wonderful precision.
"We shall pass it, if you please, sir," said Conseil.
"I believe we shall," I said, in a tone of firm conviction.
In this open sea, the Nautilus had taken its course direct
to the pole, without leaving the fifty-second meridian.
From 67@ 30' to 90@, twenty-two degrees and a half of latitude
remained to travel; that is, about five hundred leagues.
The Nautilus kept up a mean speed of twenty-six miles an hour--
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Rezanov by Gertrude Atherton: as no artful reinforcement to passion had ever
done. He forgot the wall. His ego melted in a
sense of complete union and happiness. Even when
they returned to earth and discussed the dubious
future, he was conscious of an odd resignation,
very alien in his nature, not only to the barrier but
to all the strange conditions of his wooing. He
had felt something of this before, although less defi-
nitely, and to-night he concluded that she had the
gift of clothing the inevitable with the semblance
and the sweetness of choice; and wondered how
Rezanov |
