| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Protagoras by Plato: your money, and some one had said to you: You are paying money to your
namesake Hippocrates, O Hippocrates; tell me, what is he that you give him
money? how would you have answered?
I should say, he replied, that I gave money to him as a physician.
And what will he make of you?
A physician, he said.
And if you were resolved to go to Polycleitus the Argive, or Pheidias the
Athenian, and were intending to give them money, and some one had asked
you: What are Polycleitus and Pheidias? and why do you give them this
money?--how would you have answered?
I should have answered, that they were statuaries.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Timaeus by Plato: generations which had since passed. Thereupon an aged priest said to him:
'O Solon, Solon, you Hellenes are ever young, and there is no old man who
is a Hellene.' 'What do you mean?' he asked. 'In mind,' replied the
priest, 'I mean to say that you are children; there is no opinion or
tradition of knowledge among you which is white with age; and I will tell
you why. Like the rest of mankind you have suffered from convulsions of
nature, which are chiefly brought about by the two great agencies of fire
and water. The former is symbolized in the Hellenic tale of young Phaethon
who drove his father's horses the wrong way, and having burnt up the earth
was himself burnt up by a thunderbolt. For there occurs at long intervals
a derangement of the heavenly bodies, and then the earth is destroyed by
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Salome by Oscar Wilde: qui s'envolent vers leurs colombiers. Elles ressemblent e des
papillons blancs. Elles sont tout e fait comme des papillons
blancs.
LE PAGE D'HERODIAS. Mais qu'est-ce que cela vous fait? Pourquoi la
regarder? Il ne faut pas la regarder . . . Il peut arriver un
malheur.
LE CAPPADOCIEN [montrant la citerne] Quelle etrange prison!
SECOND SOLDAT. C'est une ancienne citerne.
LE CAPPADOCIEN. Une ancienne citerne! cela doit etre tres malsain.
SECOND SOLDAT. Mais non. Par exemple, le frere du tetrarque, son
frere aine, le premier mari de la reine Herodias, a ete enferme le-
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