| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Laches by Plato: the fulfilment of a common duty. I will tell you, Nicias and Laches, even
at the risk of being tedious, how we came to think of this. Melesias and I
live together, and our sons live with us; and now, as I was saying at
first, we are going to confess to you. Both of us often talk to the lads
about the many noble deeds which our own fathers did in war and peace--in
the management of the allies, and in the administration of the city; but
neither of us has any deeds of his own which he can show. The truth is
that we are ashamed of this contrast being seen by them, and we blame our
fathers for letting us be spoiled in the days of our youth, while they were
occupied with the concerns of others; and we urge all this upon the lads,
pointing out to them that they will not grow up to honour if they are
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Cromwell by William Shakespeare: My debtors, they that should relieve my want,
Forswears my money, says they owe me none:
They know my state too mean to bear out law,
And here in London, where I oft have been,
And have done good to many a wretched man,
I am now most wretched here, despised my self.
In vain it is, more of their hearts to try;
Be patient, therefore, lay thee down and die.
[He lies down.]
[Enter good man Seely, and his wife Joan.]
SEELY.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain: it will soon shoal up, boats cannot approach within ten miles
of it, and down goes its value to a fourth of its former worth.
Watches are kept on those narrow necks, at needful times,
and if a man happens to be caught cutting a ditch across them,
the chances are all against his ever having another opportunity to
cut a ditch.
Pray observe some of the effects of this ditching business.
Once there was a neck opposite Port Hudson, Louisiana, which was only
half a mile across, in its narrowest place. You could walk across
there in fifteen minutes; but if you made the journey around the cape
on a raft, you traveled thirty-five miles to accomplish the same thing.
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