| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from On Revenues by Xenophon: increase in the supply of labourers, there will be a corrsponding
demand for their services on the part of contractors?[22] It may be
reassuring to note, first of all, that many of those who have already
embarked on mining operations[23] will be anxious to increase their
staff of labourers by hiring some of these public slaves (remember,
they have a large capital at stake;[24] and again, many of the actual
labourers now engaged are growing old); and secondly, there are many
others, Athenians and foreigners alike, who, though unwilling and
indeed incapable of working physically in the mines, will be glad
enough to earn a livelihood by their wits as superintendents.[25]
[22] Or, "with this influx (multiplying) of labourers there will be a
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Walking by Henry David Thoreau: tame by inherited disposition, this is no reason why the others
should have their natures broken that they may be reduced to the
same level. Men are in the main alike, but they were made several
in order that they might be various. If a low use is to be
served, one man will do nearly or quite as well as another; if a
high one, individual excellence is to be regarded. Any man can
stop a hole to keep the wind away, but no other man could serve
so rare a use as the author of this illustration did. Confucius
says,--"The skins of the tiger and the leopard, when they are
tanned, are as the skins of the dog and the sheep tanned." But it
is not the part of a true culture to tame tigers, any more than
Walking |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Symposium by Plato: being swift desired to be swift, or being healthy desired to be healthy, in
that case he might be thought to desire something which he already has or
is. I give the example in order that we may avoid misconception. For the
possessors of these qualities, Agathon, must be supposed to have their
respective advantages at the time, whether they choose or not; and who can
desire that which he has? Therefore, when a person says, I am well and
wish to be well, or I am rich and wish to be rich, and I desire simply to
have what I have--to him we shall reply: 'You, my friend, having wealth
and health and strength, want to have the continuance of them; for at this
moment, whether you choose or no, you have them. And when you say, I
desire that which I have and nothing else, is not your meaning that you
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