| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Meno by Plato: as in a dream; but if he were frequently asked the same questions, in
different forms, he would know as well as any one at last?
MENO: I dare say.
SOCRATES: Without any one teaching him he will recover his knowledge for
himself, if he is only asked questions?
MENO: Yes.
SOCRATES: And this spontaneous recovery of knowledge in him is
recollection?
MENO: True.
SOCRATES: And this knowledge which he now has must he not either have
acquired or always possessed?
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Memoir of Fleeming Jenkin by Robert Louis Stevenson: brought a cornet-a-piston to practice on, having had three weeks'
instructions on that melodious instrument; and if you could hear
the horrid sounds that come! especially at heavy rolls. When I
hint he is not improving, there comes a confession: "I don't feel
quite right yet, you see!" But he blows away manfully, and in
self-defence I try to roar the tune louder.
'11:30 P.M.
'Long past Cape St. Vincent now. We went within about 400 yards of
the cliffs and light-house in a calm moonlight, with porpoises
springing from the sea, the men crooning long ballads as they lay
idle on the forecastle and the sails flapping uncertain on the
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Eugenie Grandet by Honore de Balzac: His only known expenditures were for the consecrated bread, the
clothing of his wife and daughter, the hire of their chairs in church,
the wages of la Grand Nanon, the tinning of the saucepans, lights,
taxes, repairs on his buildings, and the costs of his various
industries. He had six hundred acres of woodland, lately purchased,
which he induced a neighbor's keeper to watch, under the promise of an
indemnity. After the acquisition of this property he ate game for the
first time.
Monsieur Grandet's manners were very simple. He spoke little. He
usually expressed his meaning by short sententious phrases uttered in
a soft voice. After the Revolution, the epoch at which he first came
Eugenie Grandet |
