| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Agesilaus by Xenophon: [6] Or reading, {sun auto to gennaio} (with Breitenbach), "in
obedience to pure generosity." See "Cyrop." VIII. iii. 38.
[7] I.e. Agis. See Plut. "Ages." iv.
V
Or again, reviewing the divers pleasures which master human beings, I
defy any one to name a single one to which Agesilaus was enslaved:
Agesilaus, who regarded drunkenness as a thing to hold aloof from like
madness, and immoderate eating like the snare of indolence. Even the
double portion[1] allotted to him at the banquet was not spent on his
own appetite; rather would be make distribution of the whole,
retaining neither portion for himself. In his view of the matter this
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Garden Party by Katherine Mansfield: Mr. Hammond's quick, eager glance, so nervous and yet so friendly and
confiding, took in everybody on the wharf, roped in even those old chaps
lounging against the gangways. They knew, every man-jack of them, that
Mrs. Hammond was on that boat, and that he was so tremendously excited it
never entered his head not to believe that this marvellous fact meant
something to them too. It warmed his heart towards them. They were, he
decided, as decent a crowd of people--Those old chaps over by the gangways,
too--fine, solid old chaps. What chests--by Jove! And he squared his own,
plunged his thick-gloved hands into his pockets, rocked from heel to toe.
"Yes, my wife's been in Europe for the last ten months. On a visit to our
eldest girl, who was married last year. I brought her up here, as far as
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Prince by Nicolo Machiavelli: be permitted in a vigorous principality; such methods for enabling one
the more easily to manage subjects are only useful in times of peace,
but if war comes this policy proves fallacious.
4. Without doubt princes become great when they overcome the
difficulties and obstacles by which they are confronted, and therefore
fortune, especially when she desires to make a new prince great, who
has a greater necessity to earn renown than an hereditary one, causes
enemies to arise and form designs against him, in order that he may
have the opportunity of overcoming them, and by them to mount higher,
as by a ladder which his enemies have raised. For this reason many
consider that a wise prince, when he has the opportunity, ought with
The Prince |
