| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Sophist by Plato: find, as we might expect, the germs of many thoughts which have been
further developed by the genius of Spinoza and Hegel. But there is a
difficulty in separating the germ from the flower, or in drawing the line
which divides ancient from modern philosophy. Many coincidences which
occur in them are unconscious, seeming to show a natural tendency in the
human mind towards certain ideas and forms of thought. And there are many
speculations of Plato which would have passed away unheeded, and their
meaning, like that of some hieroglyphic, would have remained undeciphered,
unless two thousand years and more afterwards an interpreter had arisen of
a kindred spirit and of the same intellectual family. For example, in the
Sophist Plato begins with the abstract and goes on to the concrete, not in
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The American by Henry James: and St. Johns; she had kept an eye upon all the variously embodied
human nature around her, and she had formed her conclusions.
In a certain sense, it seemed to Newman, M. Nioche might be at rest;
his daughter might do something very audacious, but she would never
do anything foolish. Newman, with his long-drawn, leisurely smile,
and his even, unhurried utterance, was always, mentally, taking his time;
and he asked himself, now, what she was looking at him in that way for.
He had an idea that she would like him to confess that he did think
her a bad girl.
"Oh, no," he said at last; "it would be very bad manners in me
to judge you that way. I don't know you."
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from A Footnote to History by Robert Louis Stevenson: ground is, for I do not wish to go on any neutral territory, or on
any foreigner's property. I do not want to offend any of the great
Powers. Another thing I would like. Would it be possible for you
three consuls to make Tamasese remove from German property? for I
am in awe of going on German land." He must have received a reply
embodying Becker's renunciation of the principle, at once; for he
broke camp the same day, and marched eastward through the bush
behind Apia.
Brandeis, expecting attack, sought to improve his indefensible
position. He reformed his centre by the simple expedient of
suppressing it. Apia was evacuated. The two flanks, Mulinuu and
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