| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Lesser Hippias by Plato: what he was saying just now about Homer. I have heard your father,
Apemantus, declare that the Iliad of Homer is a finer poem than the Odyssey
in the same degree that Achilles was a better man than Odysseus; Odysseus,
he would say, is the central figure of the one poem and Achilles of the
other. Now, I should like to know, if Hippias has no objection to tell me,
what he thinks about these two heroes, and which of them he maintains to be
the better; he has already told us in the course of his exhibition many
things of various kinds about Homer and divers other poets.
EUDICUS: I am sure that Hippias will be delighted to answer anything which
you would like to ask; tell me, Hippias, if Socrates asks you a question,
will you answer him?
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Barlaam and Ioasaph by St. John of Damascus: is life and peace. And even as I did discern the vanity of
present things and hate them with a perfect hatred, so likewise I
counsel thee to decide thereon, that thou mayest treat them as
something alien and quickly passing away, and mayest remove all
thy store from earth and lay up for thyself in the incorruptible
world a treasure that can not be stolen, wealth inexhaustible, in
that place whither thou must shortly fare, that when thou comest
thither thou mayest not be destitute, but be laden with riches,
after the manner of that aptest of parables that I lately showed
thee."
XV.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from My Aunt Margaret's Mirror by Walter Scott: short, she had all the various duties of a mother, without the
credit and dignity of the maternal character. The busy scene of
her various cares is now over. Of the invalids and the robust,
the kind and the rough, the peevish and pleased children, who
thronged her little parlour from morning to night, not one now
remains alive but myself, who, afflicted by early infirmity, was
one of the most delicate of her nurslings, yet, nevertheless,
have outlived them all.
It is still my custom, and shall be so while I have the use of my
limbs, to visit my respected relation at least three times a
week. Her abode is about half a mile from the suburbs of the
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