| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from An International Episode by Henry James: as she said, had made, in New York, a clubhouse of her drawing room--
no tidings were to be obtained; but Lord Lambeth was certainly
attentive enough to make up for the accidental absences,
the short memories, all the other irregularities of everyone else.
He drove them in the park, he took them to visit private collections
of pictures, and, having a house of his own, invited them to dinner.
Mrs. Westgate, following the fashion of many of her compatriots,
caused herself and her sister to be presented at the English
court by her diplomatic representative--for it was in this
manner that she alluded to the American minister to England,
inquiring what on earth he was put there for, if not to make
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Thus Spake Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche: treaders', soft-prayers' hunt,--
--For a hunt after susceptible simpletons: all mouse-traps for the heart
have again been set! And whenever I lift a curtain, a night-moth rusheth
out of it.
Did it perhaps squat there along with another night-moth? For everywhere
do I smell small concealed communities; and wherever there are closets
there are new devotees therein, and the atmosphere of devotees.
They sit for long evenings beside one another, and say: "Let us again
become like little children and say, 'good God!'"--ruined in mouths and
stomachs by the pious confectioners.
Or they look for long evenings at a crafty, lurking cross-spider, that
Thus Spake Zarathustra |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Charmides by Plato: and that, unlike the distinction of Critias between (Greek), none of them
are merely verbal quibbles, it is implied that this question, although it
has not yet received a solution in theory, has been already answered by
Charmides himself, who has learned to practise the virtue of self-knowledge
which philosophers are vainly trying to define in words. In a similar
spirit we might say to a young man who is disturbed by theological
difficulties, 'Do not trouble yourself about such matters, but only lead a
good life;' and yet in either case it is not to be denied that right ideas
of truth may contribute greatly to the improvement of character.
The reasons why the Charmides, Lysis, Laches have been placed together and
first in the series of Platonic dialogues, are: (i) Their shortness and
|
