| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Phaedo by Plato: not complete unless the living come from the dead as well as pass to them.
The Platonic doctrine of reminiscence is then adduced as a confirmation of
the pre-existence of the soul. Some proofs of this doctrine are demanded.
One proof given is the same as that of the Meno, and is derived from the
latent knowledge of mathematics, which may be elicited from an unlearned
person when a diagram is presented to him. Again, there is a power of
association, which from seeing Simmias may remember Cebes, or from seeing a
picture of Simmias may remember Simmias. The lyre may recall the player of
the lyre, and equal pieces of wood or stone may be associated with the
higher notion of absolute equality. But here observe that material
equalities fall short of the conception of absolute equality with which
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from What is Man? by Mark Twain: it. They know, too, that while in history-building a fact is
better than a presumption, it doesn't take a presumption long to
bloom into a fact when THEY have the handling of it. They know
by old experience that when they get hold of a presumption-
tadpole he is not going to STAY tadpole in their history-tank;
no, they know how to develop him into the giant four-legged
bullfrog of FACT, and make him sit up on his hams, and puff out
his chin, and look important and insolent and come-to-stay; and
assert his genuine simon-pure authenticity with a thundering
bellow that will convince everybody because it is so loud.
The thug is aware that loudness convinces sixty persons where
What is Man? |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from A Simple Soul by Gustave Flaubert: bat; and her loud pounding could be heard in the neighbouring gardens.
The meadows were empty, the breeze wrinkled the stream, at the bottom
of which were long grasses that looked like the hair of corpses
floating in the water. She restrained her sorrow and was very brave
until night; but, when she had gone to her own room, she gave way to
it, burying her face in the pillow and pressing her two fists against
her temples.
A long while afterward, she learned through Victor's captain, the
circumstances which surrounded his death. At the hospital they had
bled him too much, treating him for yellow fever. Four doctors held
him at one time. He died almost instantly, and the chief surgeon had
A Simple Soul |
