| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Ion by Plato: not allowed to live in a well-ordered state. Like the Statesmen in the
Meno, they have a divine instinct, but they are narrow and confused; they
do not attain to the clearness of ideas, or to the knowledge of poetry or
of any other art as a whole.
In the Protagoras the ancient poets are recognized by Protagoras himself as
the original sophists; and this family resemblance may be traced in the
Ion. The rhapsode belongs to the realm of imitation and of opinion: he
professes to have all knowledge, which is derived by him from Homer, just
as the sophist professes to have all wisdom, which is contained in his art
of rhetoric. Even more than the sophist he is incapable of appreciating
the commonest logical distinctions; he cannot explain the nature of his own
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Island Nights' Entertainments by Robert Louis Stevenson: says he, "and that money was made there, when it is clear that all
the new coin in all the world is gathered on these sands! But I
will know better the next time!" said he.
And at last, he knew not very well how or when, sleep feel on
Keola, and he forgot the island and all his sorrows.
Early the next day, before the sun was yet up, a bustle woke him.
He awoke in fear, for he thought the tribe had caught him napping:
but it was no such matter. Only, on the beach in front of him, the
bodiless voices called and shouted one upon another, and it seemed
they all passed and swept beside him up the coast of the island.
"What is afoot now?" thinks Keola. And it was plain to him it was
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Concerning Christian Liberty by Martin Luther: whatever discredit to Rome has arisen through me has been caused
by the fault of himself alone.
Suffer me, I pray you, most excellent Leo, both to plead my own
cause, and to accuse your true enemies. I believe it is known to
you in what way Cardinal Cajetan, your imprudent and unfortunate,
nay unfaithful, legate, acted towards me. When, on account of my
reverence for your name, I had placed myself and all that was
mine in his hands, he did not so act as to establish peace, which
he could easily have established by one little word, since I at
that time promised to be silent and to make an end of my case, if
he would command my adversaries to do the same. But that man of
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