| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Symposium by Xenophon: all things the least liable to envy; seldom, if ever, an object of
contention;[20] never guarded, yet always safe; the more you starve
it, the stronger it grows.
[20] Cf. Plat. "Rep." 521 A; "Laws," 678 C.
And you, Socrates, yourself (their host demanded), what is it you
pride yourself upon?
Then he, with knitted brows, quite solemnly: On pandering.[21] And
when they laughed to hear him say this,[22] he continued: Laugh to
your hearts content, my friends; but I am certain I could make a
fortune, if I chose to practise this same art.
[21] Or, more politely, "on playing the go-between." See Grote, "H.
The Symposium |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Laches by Plato: was first proposed to us: 'Who have been our own instructors in this sort
of training, and whom have we made better?' But the other mode of carrying
on the enquiry will bring us equally to the same point, and will be more
like proceeding from first principles. For if we knew that the addition of
something would improve some other thing, and were able to make the
addition, then, clearly, we must know how that about which we are advising
may be best and most easily attained. Perhaps you do not understand what I
mean. Then let me make my meaning plainer in this way. Suppose we knew
that the addition of sight makes better the eyes which possess this gift,
and also were able to impart sight to the eyes, then, clearly, we should
know the nature of sight, and should be able to advise how this gift of
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Christ in Flanders by Honore de Balzac: seven persons who were standing in the stern of the shallop hastened
to sit down on the benches, so as to leave no room for the newcomer.
It was the swift and instinctive working of the aristocratic spirit,
an impulse of exclusiveness that comes from the rich man's heart. Four
of the seven personages belonged to the most aristocratic families in
Flanders. First among them was a young knight with two beautiful
greyhounds; his long hair flowed from beneath a jeweled cap; he
clanked his gilded spurs, curled the ends of his moustache from time
to time with a swaggering grace, and looked round disdainfully on the
rest of the crew. A high-born damsel, with a falcon on her wrist, only
spoke with her mother or with a churchman of high rank, who was
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